Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich will hold a campaign rally downtown Spokane on Thursday afternoon.

His Washington campaign coordinator said Gingrich will be at The Bing Theater at 2 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. It was earlier described by Spokane County GOP officials as a town hall style meeting, but state campaign officials later called it a rally.

Gingrich is the third GOP presidential hopeful to make a stop in the Inland Northwest. Rick Santorum spoke in Coeur d'Alene last week and Ron Paul held a rally at the Spokane Convention Center on Friday.

Mitt Romney's son visited the Spokane Valley this afternoon.

Gingrich, despite being from Georgia, has noteworthy ties to Inland Northwest politics that he may or may not dwell on in his visit.

He engineered the 1994 Republican sweep that -- among other things -- took leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives away from Spokane when Republican George Nethercutt beat sitting House Speaker Tom Foley, a Democrat. Republicans, after capturing control of the House that year, chose Gingrich to replace Foley.

Washington holds its precinct caucuses on March 3. Idaho's caucuses are March 6.

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