About Ed Gillespie
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 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%. 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. In 2020, Gillespie was hired by AT&T to serve as senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs. Previously, he served as co-chairman of Sard Verbinnen & Co.'s public affairs practice. In 2000, Gillespie founded the lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates with Jack Quinn, and within a year had an income of $8.5 million and was 11th on Fortune's list of the most powerful lobbying firms in the US. In December 2013, Gillespie told Politico that he was considering a first-time political run in 2014 against Mark Warner, a popular Democratic incumbent U.S. That's a sizable gap." American Crossroads, he boasts, will be the place where the real money goes to "play."' In April 2012, Gillespie became a senior advisor to Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign.
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