Northwestern College Republicans announced Tuesday that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich will speak Nov. 16 at its annual fall event.

Gingrich, who ran an unsuccessful presidential bid in 2012, served as a United States representative from Georgia from 1979 to 1999. He also co-authored the “Contract with America,” a Republican plan to retake the U.S. House of Representatives. After the Contract’s release in 1994, Republicans successfully regained control of the House for the first time in 40 years.

“He seemed like an obvious choice of somebody who brings a balance of wide name recognition and also superb intelligence and wisdom,” said College Republicans president Harrison Flagler. “He’s able to speak to a very diverse subsection of our campus.”

The event, free and open to the public, will be held in the Louis Room of Norris University Center. Flagler, a Weinberg senior, said NU students would get priority in the Q&A session.

At this point, the group doesn’t know what Gingrich will speak about when he comes to NU later in November.

“We’re still working on the exact theme,” said Will Pritzker, College Republicans secretary of events and a Weinberg junior. “We don’t want to micromanage what Newt talks about, but I’d imagine a big theme is going to be broad stuff about freedom and conservative values.”

Funding for the event was provided by Associated Student Government and a grant worth up to $20,000 from Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization.

As the event draws closer, College Republicans will be providing periodic updates on their Facebook page about themes and advance tickets, Flagler said.

“We had Rick Santorum come speak last year,” Flagler said. “We only announced him six days before and still had 215 people show up. We’re announcing somebody who I think has larger name recognition and is more culturally significant.”

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