GOP looks to ex-leader Gingrich for advice on agenda

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The House majority seemingly within their grasp, Republican lawmakers huddling at a retreat in Florida last week turned to the architect of the Republican Revolution nearly three decades ago — former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — for ideas on starting their own political revolt come November.

Needing only a handful of seats to recapture the House, Republicans are exceedingly confident of their chances. With incumbent Democrats retiring in droves, and President Biden’s poll numbers slumping amid deep voter pessimism about the economy, many in the party — including their leader Kevin McCarthy — are treating the Republican victory as a done deal.

They see Gingrich, the man who swept away four decades of Democratic House rule with the Contract With America in 1994, as a model. He spoke to House Republicans Wednesday night as they gathered in Jacksonville

to prepare for the campaigning ahead. His message was simple: offer a contrast to what he called the failing Democratic agenda and then deliver to the American people.

But while Republicans have numbers on their side in the election, what they would do with a majority is very much a work in progress. And it remained unclear at the three-day retreat what, if any, lessons Republicans have learned from the tumultuous eras of Gingrich, Dennis Hastert, John Boehner and Paul Ryan — the past four Republican House speakers, all of whom found it is easier to win power in the House than to control it. Last summer McCarthy tasked several groups of Republican lawmakers with drafting proposals on the party’s core legislative priorities, including lowering costs in the economy, securing the Southern border and countering China, in hopes of making a fast start in 2023.

But creating a governing majority is a daunting challenge. Hard-right members of the conference are ascendant, creating headaches with their inflammatory actions and statements. Many in the party are likely to welcome new rounds of brinkmanship over government spending and the debt. And some Republicans are already agitating for partisan investigations of figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci and President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, that could easily overshadow their legislation.