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. Provided by Wikipedia