ATLANTA — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced Thursday he is exploring a run for president and has launched a website to collect donations so he can gauge support.
The Republican stopped short of forming an exploratory committee, which would have made him a legal candidate.
Instead, Gingrich, speaking briefly with reporters in his old home state of Georgia, said he and his wife “will look at this very seriously and we will very methodically lay out the framework of what we’ll do next.”
Gingrich announced the launch of a website to accept donations within Federal Election Commission contribution limits. If he decides to run, all donations collected from the site will have to be reported.
“We are excited about exploring whether there is sufficient support for my potential candidacy for president of this exceptional country,” Gingrich says on the website, which features a photo of the former Georgia congressman and his wife, Callista, and provides links to social media sites.
At the Georgia Capitol, Gingrich sounded like a candidate, noting the state’s unemployment rate is at a historic high and conflict in the Middle East could lead to a “catastrophic” increase in the cost of oil.
“We believe that America’s best years are actually ahead of us,” Gingrich said. “We believe that it is possible through the right policies with the right values to create dramatically more jobs with dramatically higher incomes.”