ATLANTA — Villa Richardson sits atop a hill with a sweeping view of Rome. The 19th-century palazzo is the residence of the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. And it’s where Newt Gingrich spent most of the COVID-19 lockdown.
The former U.S. House speaker was playing an unfamiliar role — “plus one” to his wife, Callista, the Trump administration’s top diplomat at the Vatican.
But as the 2022 elections shift into high gear, Gingrich is stateside again. And he’s been spending a lot of time back in Georgia trying to help elect a hand-selected group of Republican candidates.
Gingrich has stumped for Republican gubernatorial candidate David Perdue, spent hours talking policy with U.S. Senate hopeful Herschel Walker, and is believed to have helped orchestrate former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Jake Evans in the 6th Congressional District.
“I love to come back home,” Gingrich told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as he wrapped up a visit to The Zone, an addiction treatment center in Marietta. “Where I can be helpful, I am.”