Ed Gillespie

Ed Gillespie
Gillespie in 2014
Counselor to the President
In office
July 5, 2007 – January 20, 2009
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byDan Bartlett
Succeeded byPete Rouse (2011)
Chair of the Virginia Republican Party
In office
December 4, 2006 – June 13, 2007
Preceded byKate Obenshain
Succeeded byJohn Hager
Chair of the Republican National Committee
In office
July 25, 2003 – January 20, 2005
Preceded byMarc Racicot
Succeeded byKen Mehlman
Personal details
Born
Edward Walter Gillespie

(1961-08-01) August 1, 1961 (age 63)
Mount Holly, New Jersey, U.S.
Political partyRepublican (1984–present)
Other political
affiliations
Democratic (before 1984)
SpouseCathy Gillespie
Children3
EducationCatholic University (BA)

Edward Walter Gillespie (born August 1, 1961) is an American politician, strategist, and lobbyist who served as the 61st Chair of the Republican National Committee from 2003 to 2005 and was counselor to the President from 2007 to 2009 during the Presidency of George W. Bush. In 2012 Gillespie was a senior member of the Mitt Romney presidential campaign.

Gillespie founded the bipartisan[1] lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates with Jack Quinn, and founded Ed Gillespie Strategies.

Gillespie ran in the 2014 United States Senate election in Virginia. Gillespie narrowly lost to incumbent Mark Warner by a margin of 0.8%.[2] Gillespie ran for Governor of Virginia in the 2017 election. After winning the Republican primary, he was defeated in the general election by Democratic nominee Ralph Northam; Gillespie received 1.17 million votes (45%) to Northam's 1.40 million (54%) in the election.[3][4][5]

In 2020, Gillespie was hired by AT&T to serve as senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs.[6] Previously, he served as co-chairman of Sard Verbinnen & Co.'s public affairs practice.[7]

  1. ^ Last day for most of QGA Public Affairs Politico
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference FiveThirtyEight was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference HillGovRun was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2017primary was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Virginia Department of Elections (November 7, 2017). "2017 November General Unofficial Results". Archived from the original on November 8, 2017. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
  6. ^ Womack, Brian. "AT&T appoints former RNC chair as new leader for external and legislative affairs". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
  7. ^ Merced, Michael J. de la (June 5, 2018). "Ed Gillespie, a Veteran Washington Hand, Will Join Sard Verbinnen". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 2, 2020.