# Ed Gillespie **Edward W. Gillespie** (born August 1, 1961) is a longtime Republican political strategist, lobbyist, and party official. He co-founded [[American Crossroads]] and [[Crossroads GPS]] with [[Karl Rove]] in 2010 — the **prototype post-Citizens United Super PAC and 501(c)(4) twin structure** that has since defined contemporary American political spending. Gillespie's career trajectory illustrates the contemporary Republican operator pathway: senior party official → senior administration official → for-profit lobbyist → independent political-spending operator → candidate. ## Career Trajectory - **1990s:** Senior staff positions on House Republican leadership ([[Dick Armey]], House Majority Leader) - **1996:** Communications director, Bush-Quayle 1996 (Republican National Committee assignment) - **2000:** Senior advisor to George W. Bush 2000 presidential campaign - **2003–2005:** Chair, Republican National Committee - **2007–2009:** Counselor to President [[George W. Bush]] (final two years of the second Bush term) - **2010:** Co-founds [[American Crossroads]] and [[Crossroads GPS]] with [[Karl Rove]] - **2014:** Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Virginia (loses to [[Mark Warner]] by 0.8 points — closer than expected) - **2017:** Republican nominee for Virginia Governor (loses to Ralph Northam by 9 points) - **2018–present:** Returns to political-strategy and lobbying work; remains involved with various conservative-movement organizations The 2014 Senate and 2017 Virginia Governor losses are structurally significant: Gillespie was a senior Republican strategist who ran (and lost) two high-profile elections in a state (Virginia) that was simultaneously trending Democratic. The losses are part of a broader pattern of Republican difficulty in suburban / professional-class districts that has continued through subsequent cycles. ## Significance for the KB Gillespie matters for the KB principally as the **co-founder of the prototype post-Citizens United dark-money architecture**. Together with [[Karl Rove]], Gillespie designed the [[American Crossroads]] / [[Crossroads GPS]] pair in 2010 to take advantage of the constitutional space [[Citizens United v. FEC]] and [[SpeechNow.org v. FEC]] had just opened. The operational template the two designed — disclosed Super PAC + paired 501(c)(4) shadow under common leadership — has been replicated across virtually all major political-spending operations on both partisan sides since 2010. Gillespie's post-Crossroads electoral career (2014 Senate loss; 2017 gubernatorial loss) is also illustrative: even highly-resourced Republican operatives with substantial conservative-movement infrastructure backing struggled to win in increasingly Democratic-trending Virginia. The structural pattern is one instance of the broader contemporary right-wing-politics dynamic in which institutional infrastructure and donor money do not necessarily produce electoral victories in regions trending against Republican coalition demographics. ## See Also - [[American Crossroads]] — the Super PAC he co-founded - [[Crossroads GPS]] — the 501(c)(4) he co-founded - [[Karl Rove]] — his principal co-founder and longtime strategic partner - [[George W. Bush]] — the President for whom he served as Counselor - [[Republican Party]] — the party he chaired (2003-2005) - [[Citizens United v. FEC]] — the case that enabled the architecture he helped design - [[Campaign Finance Timeline]] — full chronological view