Another early sign that the investment was yielding real results on the national scale was the Republican wave that swept the 1978 midterm elections. That year, Republicans gained three Senate seats, fifteen House seats, and six governorships. In Georgia, in a development that would have unforeseen future repercussions, Newt Gingrich was elected to Congress. External events such as the energy crisis and “stagflation” of course played into the election results, too. But the new conservative think tanks and other right-wing political organizations fanned the discontent and shaped the dominant
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