Republican former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Sunday he will decide after November's congressional elections whether he will make a run for the White House in 2012.
Gingrich has openly explored entering the wide-open battle for the 2012 Republican nomination to challenge President Barack Obama, making recent visits to early battleground states Iowa and New Hampshire. Gingrich said he had been to 10 states in the last two weeks.
"I think that's a decision we'll make in February or March," Gingrich said on "Fox News Sunday" of a presidential run. "This is a very hard family decision because it's such a deep commitment and it is so absorbing."
A White House campaign by Gingrich, who led the Republican takeover of Congress in the 1994 election, got a qualified endorsement from former Democratic Party chairman and presidential candidate Howard Dean.
Dean said Gingrich would provide intellectual depth to a Republican Party that he said lacked ideas.
"They desperately need some intellectual leadership, and whatever you think of Newt Gingrich, he can supply intellectual leadership," Dean said on Fox. "So I hope he does run."
Gingrich laughed and called Dean's comment "the kiss of death" in a Republican primary.
Gingrich would join a field of possible Republican contenders in 2012 that also includes former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.
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