On this episode of Newt's World we have a special treat. My new book March the Majority,

The Real Story of the Republican Revolution, comes out on June 6th. And my co-author, Joe

Gaylord, who was absolutely central to our ability to elect the first majority in

40 years, and our ability to get reelected for the first time in 68 years, has agreed

to spend some time on this podcast, talking about how we did it, why we wrote the book

together. Joe is the former executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

He's been my longtime political advisor. One of my closest friends, he's with me every

step of the way, both through the contract with America, and then for the four years of

getting Bill Clinton to sign conservative reform. He teaches a course on campaign management

at the University of Iowa and has just been amazingly central to everything I've ever

done politically.

Joe, welcome and thank you for joining me on Newt's World.

I'm delighted to be here now. Our new book March the Majority is available for pre-order

right now, so it's kind of exciting. I found developing the book, going through the research

laying out the 16 years where we worked together trying to get a majority than the four

years where we did succeed in getting Clinton to sign an amazing amount of conservative reforms

that it was both exhausting, but it also brought up a lot of memories. So let me start from

the standpoint of your life and the way in which you got involved in politics as a small

town kid from Illinois who went to the University of Iowa and then found yourself having a very

active role in the Iowa Republican Party. So start with how you became a Republican.

So I was raised in a primarily democratic household. I had an uncle who was a union steward.

My aunt was a postmaster who was appointed by Harry Truman. And so everything kind of

...