Jim DeMint | |
|---|---|
 DeMint in 2005 | |
| President of theHeritage Foundation | |
| In office April 4, 2013 – May 2, 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Edwin Feulner |
| Succeeded by | Edwin Feulner |
| United States Senator fromSouth Carolina | |
| In office January 3, 2005 – January 2, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Fritz Hollings |
| Succeeded by | Tim Scott |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromSouth Carolina's4th district | |
| In office January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2005 | |
| Preceded by | Bob Inglis |
| Succeeded by | Bob Inglis |
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Warren DeMint (1951-09-02)September 2, 1951 (age 74) |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | University of Tennessee (BA) Clemson University (MBA) |
DeMint on the importance of ideas in his Senate farewell speech. Recorded December 20, 2012 | |
James Warren DeMint (born September 2, 1951) is an American businessman, author, and retired politician who served as aUnited States senator fromSouth Carolina and as president ofThe Heritage Foundation. A leading figure in theTea Party movement, DeMint is a member of theRepublican Party and is the founder of theSenate Conservatives Fund.
DeMint served as theUnited States representative forSouth Carolina's 4th congressional district from 1999 to 2005. He was elected to the U.S. Senate from South Carolina in2004 and reelected in2010. DeMint served in the Senate until January 2, 2013, when he stepped down to become president of The Heritage Foundation. On May 2, 2017, DeMint resigned his position at Heritage at the request of its board. He later became a senior advisor toCitizens for Self-Governance and the founding chairman of theConservative Partnership Institute.
DeMint was born inGreenville,South Carolina, one of four children. His parents, Betty W. (née Rawlings) and Thomas Eugene DeMint,[1] divorced when he was five years old. Following the divorce, Betty DeMint operated a dance studio out of the family's home.[2][verification needed][3]
DeMint attendedChrist Church Episcopal School andWade Hampton High School.[4] He played drums for acover band called Salt & Pepper.[5] He received abachelor's degree in 1973 from theUniversity of Tennessee,[6] where he is a member of the Tennessee Kappa chapter ofSigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and received anMBA in 1981 fromClemson University.[6]
DeMint joined his father-in-law's advertising firm in Greenville in 1981, working in the field ofmarket research.[6][7] In 1983, he founded The DeMint Group, a research firm with businesses, schools, colleges, and hospitals as clients.[7]
DeMint's first involvement in politics began in 1992, when he was hired by Republican RepresentativeBob Inglis to work on his campaign for South Carolina's Fourth Congressional District. Inglis defeated three-term incumbent DemocratLiz J. Patterson, and DeMint performed message-testing and marketing for Inglis through two more successful elections.[8]
In 1998, Inglis ran for the U.S. Senate instead of seeking re-election to theHouse of Representatives. DeMint left his firm to run for Inglis' House seat.[6][8] The district was considered the most Republican in the state, and it was understood that whoever won the primary would be heavily favored to be the district's next congressman.[citation needed] DeMint finished second in the Republican primary behindState Senator and fellow Greenville residentMichael Fair.[9] In the runoff, DeMint narrowly defeated Fair by 2,030 votes.[10] He then defeated Democratic State SenatorGlenn Reese with 57 percent of the vote to Reese's 40 percent.[11] DeMint faced no major-party opposition in 2000, and defeated an underfunded Democrat in 2002.[citation needed]
DeMint was elected president of the freshman class of House Republicans.[12][13] DeMint pledged to serve only three terms in the House.[7]
The Washington Post andThe Christian Post have described DeMint as a "staunch conservative", based on his actions during his time in the House.[14][15] He broke rank with his party and powerful state interests several times: DeMint was one of 34 Republicans to oppose President Bush'sNo Child Left Behind program and one of 25 to opposeMedicare Part D.[12] He sought to replace No Child Left Behind with a state-based block-grant program for schools.[7] DeMint also worked to privatizeSocial Security by allowing the creation of individual investment accounts in the federal program. In 2003, DeMint sponsored legislation to allow people under the age of 55 to set aside 3 percent to 8 percent of their Social Security withholding income in personal investment accounts.[7] DeMint was also the only South Carolina House member to vote for normalizing trade relations with China, arguing in favor of free trade between the countries. He also provided a crucial swing vote on a free trade bill regarding Caribbean countries. His votes led South Carolina's influential textile industry to heavily oppose him in his subsequent House and Senate races.[16][17]
DeMint declared his candidacy for the Senate on December 12, 2002, after Sen.Ernest Hollings announced that he would retire after the 2004 elections.[citation needed] DeMint was theWhite House's preferred candidate in the Republican primary.[citation needed]
In the Republican primary on June 8, 2004, DeMint placed a distant second, 10.3% behind former governorDavid Beasley and just barely ahead ofThomas Ravenel. Ravenel endorsed DeMint in the following runoff. DeMint won the runoff handily, however.[citation needed]
DeMint then facedDemocratic state education superintendentInez Tenenbaum in the November general election. DeMint led Tenenbaum through much of the campaign and ultimately defeated her[18] by 9.6 percentage points.[citation needed] DeMint's win meant that South Carolina was represented by two Republican senators for the first time sinceReconstruction, whenThomas J. Robertson andJohn J. Patterson served together as senators.[citation needed]
DeMint stirred controversy during debates with Tenenbaum when he stated his belief that openlygay people should not be allowed to teach inpublic schools. When questioned by reporters, DeMint also stated thatsingle mothers who live with their boyfriends should similarly be excluded from being educators.[19][20] He later apologized for making the remarks, saying they were "distracting from the main issues of the debate." He also noted that these were opinions based on his personal values, not issues he would or could deal with as a member of Congress.[21]
DeMint easily won re-nomination in the Republican Party primary.[22] Democratic Party opponentAlvin Greene won an upset primary victory overVic Rawl.[23][24][25][26] Greene received scrutiny from Democratic Party officials, with some calling for Greene to withdraw his candidacy or be replaced on the ballot.[27] On November 2, 2010, DeMint defeated Greene by a margin of 63% to 28%, with Green Party candidate Tom Clements receiving 9% of the vote.[28]
In his first term, DeMint was appointed to theCommerce, Science and Transportation Committee, theEnvironment and Public Works Committee, theJoint Economic Committee, and theSpecial Committee on Aging.[29] In 2006, DeMint began leading the Senate Steering Committee.[30] DeMint also served as a member of theCommittee on Foreign Relations and theCommittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.[31][32]
As a member of the111th Congress, DeMint joined theUnited States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.[33] In 2009, DeMint was one of two senators who voted againstHillary Clinton's appointment toSecretary of State, and the next year he introduced legislation to completely repeal thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare.[34][35] Later in 2010, he introduced another piece of legislation titled the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny, which aimed to require congressional approval of any major regulation change made by a federal agency.[36] At the end of his first term, DeMint was appointed to theSenate Impeachment Trial Committee for theimpeachment of federal judgeThomas Porteous.[37]
After winning re-election in 2010, DeMint became the highest-ranking elected official associated with the Tea Party.[38][39][40][41] During the first year of his second term, DeMint released a letter signed by over 30 other Senate Republicans asking the supercommittee tasked with balancing the federal budget to do so within the next 10 years, and without creating any net tax increases.[42]
In 2012, DeMint announced his resignation from the Senate effective January 2, 2013, to take a job as president ofThe Heritage Foundation.[43] On December 17, 2012,South Carolina governorNikki Haley announced that she would name CongressmanTim Scott to fill DeMint's vacated seat.[44]
DeMint is a member of theRepublican Party[45] and is aligned with theTea Party movement.[46] In 2011, DeMint was identified bySalon as one of the most conservative members of the Senate.[45][46][47]
Throughout his political career, DeMint has supported a type oftax reform that would replace thefederal income tax with a national sales tax and has favored abolishing theInternal Revenue Service.[48] He has supported many changes to federal spending, such as prioritizing abalanced budget amendment instead of increasing thenational debt limit.[49] As a senator, DeMint proposed a two-yearearmark ban to prevent members of Congress from spending federal money on projects in their home states.[50] In 2008, presidential candidatesJohn McCain,Hillary Clinton, andBarack Obama co-sponsored DeMint's earmark reform proposal, although it ultimately failed to pass in the Senate.[51] In March 2010, DeMint's earmark reform plans were again defeated.[52] In November of the same year, DeMint, along with nine other senators includingRand Paul andMarco Rubio, proposed another moratorium on earmarks which was adopted by Senate Republicans.[53][54]
DeMint has also been a proponent of free trade agreements, advocated for the privatization ofSocial Security benefits, and in 2009 authored the "Health Care Freedom Plan", which proposed giving tax credits to those who are unable to affordhealth insurance.[48][55][56] DeMint opposed President Barack Obama's health care reform efforts, saying of theAffordable Care Act, "If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."[57]
DeMint was the sole 'Nay' vote for thePost-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008.[58]
DeMint was opposed to theEmergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and the bailouts during theautomotive industry crisis of 2008–2010. He also led a group of senators in opposing government loans to corporations.[59][60] He supports a high level of government accountability through the auditing of federal agencies.[59]
In 1999, DeMint voted against theNATO intervention during theKosovo war.[59] DeMint voted to authorize military force inIraq in 2002.[59] In 2011, DeMint voted in favor ofRand Paul's resolution opposingmilitary involvement inLibya.[46][59] He favored preventingIran from developing nuclear weapons over a policy of containment after their development.[61][better source needed]
DeMint has also expressed concern about variousUnited Nations treaties, such as theConvention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and theLaw of the Sea Treaty.[62][63] DeMint favors legal immigration and opposes granting amnesty toillegal immigrants.[64] He has expressed opposition to theBorder Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 on the basis that granting amnesty to illegal immigrants may cost American taxpayers trillions of dollars.[65][66][67]
In a May 15, 2020, editorial inNewsweek, DeMint stated that while he continued to supportfree trade, he was wrong about liberalizing trade withChina.[68]
In October 2009, after theHonduran Army, on orders from the Honduran Supreme Court,removedManuel Zelaya as president, DeMint visited the country to gather information.[69] The trip was approved by SenateMinority LeaderMitch McConnell but opposed by Foreign Relations Committee ChairmanJohn Kerry. DeMint supported the new government, while the Obama administration favored Zelaya's return to the presidency.[69]
In late 2009, DeMint criticizedBarack Obama for waiting eight months into his first term as president before nominating a new head of theTransportation Security Administration.[70] After the attempted bombing ofNorthwest Flight 253 in December 2009, DeMint stated that President Obama had not put enough focus on terrorism while in office.[70]
DeMint blamed Obama for racism in the United States. He said that Obama "took race back to the '60s, as far as I'm concerned. He made everything a race issue, or at least saw it through a racial lens. The country had moved toward bending over backward to create equality. But then suddenly, with Obama, he just lit the fires. I thought when he was elected that was the big victory, that we had put racism behind us."[71]
DeMint opposesabortion in all cases except for when the woman's life is in danger[72][better source needed] and opposing research fromstem cells derived from human embryos.[73][74]
DeMint voted against theAffordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) in December 2009.[75] He also voted against theHealth Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.[76]
He voted in favor of declaringEnglish the official language of the US government.[64]
DeMint is firmly opposed tosame-sex marriage. In his bookNow or Never: Saving America from Economic Collapse, DeMint states:
Does government have the right to reshape cultural mores by redefining religious institutions to sanction behavior that is considered immoral by all the world's religions? In America, people should have a right to live with whomever they want, but redefining marriage to promote behavior that is deemed costly and destructive is not the proper role of government.[77]
DeMint also argues that same-sex marriage infringes upon religious liberty:
We just cannot have, particularly the federal government, redefining marriage or telling us what is right or wrong. And if we help America understand that, folks, we're not trying to get the government to do it our way or your way; what we're asking for is the freedom to allow people to live out their faith and values and their lives the way they want. And we believe that our side will win because I'm convinced that most Americans want to have decent moral lives and share our same values. But if the government continues to press in the wrong direction, it begins to change our culture.[78]
DeMint has repeatedly voted for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.[79] He has also voted to ban same-sex adoption in Washington, D.C.[79] DeMint drew considerable criticism by saying that openly gay teachers should be banned from teaching in public schools.[80]
In a 2008 interview, DeMint said that while government does not have the right to restrict homosexuality, it also should not encourage it through legalizing same-sex marriage, due to the "costly secondhand consequences" to society from the prevalence of certain diseases among homosexuals.[81] On October 1, 2010, DeMint, in comments that echoed what he had said in 2004, told a rally of his supporters that openly homosexual and unmarried sexually active people should not be teachers.[82] In response, theNational Organization for Women, theNational Education Association, the gay rights groupHuman Rights Campaign,GOProud (a GOP group), and theNational Gay and Lesbian Task Force asked for DeMint's apology.[19][83]
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In 2008, DeMint formed the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), apolitical action committee with the intention of supporting conservative candidates that may have otherwise been overlooked by the national party.[84] The SCF is associated with the Tea Party movement.[85][86] It supports conservative Republican politicians in primary challenges and general elections.[50][87] SCF states that it raised $9.1 million toward the 2010 U.S. Senate elections and which endorsed successful first-time Senate candidatesPat Toomey,Rand Paul,Mike Lee,Ron Johnson,Marco Rubio.[88][better source needed] DeMint left SCF in 2012.[89]
On April 4, 2013, DeMint started his first full day as president ofThe Heritage Foundation.[90]The Washington Post reported that DeMint's predecessor at the Heritage Foundation,Edwin Feulner, was paid a base salary of $477,097 in 2010 compared to a U.S. Senator's salary of $174,000 and that year DeMint was one of the poorest members of the Senate, with an estimated wealth of $40,501.[91]
On May 2, 2017, DeMint was fired from The Heritage Foundation following a unanimous vote of the foundation's board of trustees,[92][93][94] which had lost confidence in his ability to maintain the organization's role as a fount of conservative thinking.[95] A public statement by the board said a thorough investigation of the foundation's operations under DeMint found "significant and worsening management issues that led to a breakdown of internal communications and cooperation." "While the organization has seen many successes," the board statement said, "Jim DeMint and a handful of his closest advisers failed to resolve these problems."[96]
In June 2017, DeMint became a senior advisor toCitizens for Self-Governance, a group which is seeking to call aconvention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution in order to reduce federal government spending and power. According to DeMint, "The Tea Party needs a new mission. They realize that all the work they did in 2010 has not resulted in all the things they hoped for. Many of them are turning to Article V." The proposed constitutional convention would impose fiscal restraint on Washington D.C., reduce the federal government's authority over states, and impose term limits on federal officials.[97]
In 2017, DeMint founded the Conservative Partnership Institute, of which he serves as chairman.[98][99] The stated purpose of the CPI is the professional development of conservative staffers and elected officials.[98]Mark Meadows joined as senior partner in January 2021.[100] TheSave America PAC donated $1 million to the CPI.[101]A 2022 NPR investigation found CPI might be violating prohibitions on501(c)(3) charities providing benefits to political parties (in this case, theRepublican Party).[102]
As part of theattempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, DeMint signed a December 10, 2020, letter from the Conservative Action Project asking state legislatures in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Michigan to disregard the popular vote outcomes in each of those states and appoint slates of electors to the Electoral College in support of PresidentDonald Trump.[103]
DeMint's wife, Debbie, is one of three children of the late Greenville advertising entrepreneur and South Carolina Republican figureJames Marvin Henderson Sr.[104]
National conservative leaders, such as Tea Party leader South Carolina U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, ...
... Tea Party figures such as Jim DeMint, ...
The fair is being hosted by the Conservative Partnership Institute, an organization founded by former Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint last year.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromSouth Carolina's 4th congressional district 1999–2005 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromSouth Carolina (Class 3) 2004,2010 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of the Senate Republican Steering Committee 2007–2012 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 3) from South Carolina 2005–2013 Served alongside:Lindsey Graham | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Senator | Order of precedence of the United States | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Senator |
| Class 2 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 3 | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
