Newt Gingrich to announce 2012 run on Wednesday

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich will announce on Wednesday that he will seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, a spokesman told CBS News.

Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler said Gingrich will announce the decision on Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday, and will sit down for an interview with conservative Fox News pundit Sean Hannity on Wednesday night. He plans to make his "first announcement speech" at the Georgia Republican Party convention on Friday.

This is actually the second time Gingrich has signaled he would enter the race, having suggested he would announce a run in March before backing awayamid concerns about addressing financial and legal entanglements before filing with the Federal Election Commission.

The then-Georgia congressman became a household name when he led the Republican takeover of the House in 1994, though he would step down amid criticism four years later. In the years since he has cast himself as a thought leader in the Republican Party, and has recently been raising money and laying the groundwork for a presidential run.

Gingrich will enter a wide-open Republican field in which he is one of only five potential candidates who has polled in the double digits. The others are Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney; only Romney is seen as a sure entrant into the race.

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