Ed Gillespie

Spring 2018

Ed Gillespie has been a national and state Republican Party chairman, top White House and Congressional aide, Republican nominee for both the U.S. Senate and Governor in his home state of Virginia, and founder of three successful businesses.

In 2017, he lost his bid for governor in the first major statewide election held after the 2016 presidential election in what analysts see as the first sign of a national wave that could threaten Republican Party control of Congress in 2018.

As Republican National Committee chairman in the 2004 election cycle, Gillespie became the first GOP chairman to preside over his party’s winning the White House, House and Senate in 80 years.  In 1984, he was a principal drafter of the Contract with America, which led to Republicans winning control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years.

Gillespie has been successful in the private sector, where he provides strategic communications advice to CEOs and major corporations.  

Disclaimer: This information is accurate for the time period that this person was affiliated with the Institute of Politics.