Washington, DC — Senator Jim DeMint, the conservative Republican from South Carolina who helped incite the Tea Party movement, will leave the Senate to become president of theHeritage Foundation, a conservative research group.
Senator Jim DeMint, speaking at a Tea Party convention in his home state of South Carolina last year, has announced that he will leave the Senate to lead a conservative group.
“It’s been an honor to serve the people of South Carolina in United States Senate for the past eight years,” said Mr. DeMint in a statement. “But now it’s time for me to pass the torch to someone else and take on a new role in the fight for America’s future.
The departure of Mr. DeMint — who has fashioned himself into a bit of a kingmaker for conservative Republicans, often at the expense of his own Republican colleagues — will require Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, a Republican, to name a successor who would then run to maintain the seat in a special election in 2014, when Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the senior senator from the state, will be up for re-election.
Mr. Graham told a local radio station Thursday that when Mr. DeMint, whom he called “irreplaceable in many ways” told him the news, he said “don’t tell me what you’re about to tell me.”
Mr. DeMint will depart the Senate in January.
“I’m leaving the Senate now, but I’m not leaving the fight,” he said. “I’ve decided to join The Heritage Foundation at a time when the conservative movement needs strong leadership in the battle of ideas. No organization is better equipped to lead this fight, and I believe my experience in public office as well as in the private sector as a business owner will help Heritage become even more effective in the years to come.”
Mr. DeMint replaces Edwin J. Feulner, 71, who will continue part-time as chairman of the foundation’s Asian Studies Center.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.