Jim DeMint

James Warren “Jim” DeMint (born September 2, 1951) is the junior United States Senator from South Carolina, serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party and a leading member in the Tea Party movement. He previously served as the United States Representative for SC's 4th congressional district from 1999 to 2005. On December 6, 2012, he announced plans to resign from the Senate in early January 2013 to become president of The Heritage Foundation.

Early life and education
DeMint was born in Greenville, South Carolina, one of four children. His parents, Betty W. (née Rawlings) and Thomas Eugene DeMint, divorced when he was five years old. Following the divorce, Betty DeMint operated a dance studio out of the family's home.

DeMint was educated at Christ Church Episcopal School and Wade Hampton High School in Greenville. DeMint played drums for a cover band called Salt & Pepper. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee, where he was a part of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, and received a MBA from Clemson University.

DeMint's wife, the former Debbie Henderson, is one of three children of Greenville advertising entrepreneur James Marvin Henderson, Sr. (1921-1995).

Business career
DeMint worked in the field of market research. In 1983 he founded The Demint Group, a research firm based in Greenville, and ran the company until 1998 when he entered Congress.

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
 * Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development (Ranking Member)
 * Subcommittee on Financial Institutions
 * Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
 * Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security (Ranking Member)
 * Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
 * Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion
 * Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance
 * Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security
 * Committee on Foreign Relations
 * Subcommittee on African Affairs
 * Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Democracy and Human Rights
 * Subcommittee on European Affairs (Ranking Member)
 * Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection
 * Joint Economic Committee
 * Impeachment Trial Committee on the Articles against Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr.

Caucus memberships

 * Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus
 * International Conservation Caucus
 * Tea Party Caucus

Political positions

 * DeMint is ranked by The National Journal as one of the most conservative members of the Senate. Salon.com has called him "perhaps the most conservative member of the Senate."
 * DeMint opposes spending increases of the federal government. He opposed federal bailouts for banks and automobile corporations.
 * DeMint favors a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
 * Senator DeMint has been a consistent supporter of organized and led school prayer and has introduced legislation that would allow schools to display banners such as one stating "God Bless America".
 * DeMint opposes abortion, including in cases of rape and incest. He approves of abortion only when the mother's life is in danger.
 * DeMint favors requiring all illegal immigrants in the United States to either return to their home countries or apply for legal residency. He is in favor of establishing the English language as the country's official language.


 * Demint opposed the NATO intervention into Kosovo but supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He is an advisor to the Atlantic Bridge.
 * DeMint visited Honduras in 2009 and met with de facto president Roberto Micheletti, a meeting that was opposed by US President Barack Obama's administration. The State Department officially viewed ousted president Manuel Zelaya as the legitimately elected president.
 * Following an attempted terrorist attack on December 25, 2009, DeMint accused President Barack Obama of lacking focus on terrorism since taking office and of failing to appoint a head of the Transportation Security Administration.
 * DeMint opposed President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

1998 through 2002
DeMint served as an informal advisor to Fourth District congressman Bob Inglis from 1993 to 1999. When Inglis kept his promise to serve only three terms and gave up his seat to run for the Senate against Fritz Hollings. DeMint entered the Republican primary for the district, which includes Greenville and Spartanburg. The district is 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.

DeMint finished second in the primary behind State Senator and fellow Greenville resident Michael Fair, even though he didn't carry a single county in the district. In the runoff, DeMint defeated Fair by only 2,030 votes. He then defeated Democratic State Senator Glenn Reese with 57 percent of the vote to Reese's 40 percent--to date, the only time since 1992 that a Democrat has crossed the 40 percent mark in this district since Inglis recaptured it for the Republicans in 1992. DeMint faced no major-party opposition in 2000, and defeated an underfunded Democrat in 2002.

2004
DeMint declared his candidacy for the Senate on December 12, 2002, after Hollings announced that he would retire after the 2004 elections. DeMint was supposedly the White House's preferred candidate in the Republican primary.

In the Republican primary on June 8, 2004, DeMint placed a distant second, 18 percentage points behind former governor David Beasley and just barely ahead of Thomas Ravenel. Ravenel endorsed DeMint in the following runoff. DeMint won the runoff handily, however.

DeMint then faced Democratic state education superintendent Inez Tenenbaum in the November general election. DeMint led Tenenbaum through much of the campaign and ultimately defeated her by 9.6 percentage points. DeMint's win meant that South Carolina was represented by two Republican Senators for the first time since Reconstruction, when Thomas J. Robertson and John J. Patterson served together as Senators.

DeMint stirred controversy during debates with Tenenbaum when he stated his belief that openly gay people should not be allowed to teach in public schools. When questioned by reporters, DeMint also stated that single mothers who live with their boyfriends should similarly be excluded from being educators. 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. In a 2008 interview, he 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 secondary consequences" to society from the prevalence of certain diseases among homosexuals.

2010
DeMint won re-nomination in the Republican Party primary. Democratic Party opponent Alvin Greene won an upset primary victory over Vic Rawl, who was heavily favored. Due to various electoral discrepancies, Greene received scrutiny from Democratic Party officials, with some calling for Greene to withdraw or be replaced. DeMint consistently led Greene by more than 30 points throughout the campaign and won reelection by a landslide.

Prior to the 2010 elections, DeMint founded the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), a political action committee that is "dedicated to electing strong conservatives to the United States Senate" and that is associated with the Tea Party movement. As of February 2011, DeMint continued to serve as Chair of SCF, which states that it raised $9.1 million toward the 2010 U.S. Senate elections and which endorsed successful first-time Senate candidates Pat Toomey, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, Marco Rubio. DeMint also supported Joe Miller of Alaska through the SCF. Miller was an attorney and former federal magistrate and the Tea Party's candidate opposing Lisa Murkowski the incumbent senator in the Alaska primary. Miller won in a close election, however Murkowski ran as a write in candidate and won the election by 39.1% to Miller's 35.1% and by a popular vote of 101,091 to 90,839 respectively.

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. In response, the National Organization for Women, the National Education Association, the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, GOProud, a GOP group, and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force asked for Demint’s apology.

The Heritage Foundation
On December 6, 2012, he announced he will resign from the Senate before the new 113th Congress begins in early January 2013 to become president of The Heritage Foundation. On December 17, 2012, South Carolina's governor Nikki Haley announced that she would name Congressman Tim Scott to the seat that DeMint currently holds in the U.S. Senate A special election will be held on November 4, 2014 fill the remainder of the term.

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