Jim Demint | featured news

US Republican senator and Tea Party champion Jim DeMint is resigning to lead a conservative think tank. His office said the South Carolina politician would become president of the Heritage Foundation next month.

Todd Akin’s list of allies has grown yet again. Akin this morning won the endorsement of the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), the PAC founded by influential conservative Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina. DeMint himself endorsed Akin Wednesday in a joint announcement with former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

Five of the Republican Party's leading presidential contenders traveled to South Carolina on Labor Day to kiss the ring of tea party kingmaker Jim DeMint at a first-of-its-kind forum devoted to the Constitution and the role of government.

Senator Tea Party, as Jim DeMint is sometimes known, is a moniker the first-term senator began wearing before the Tea Party became a household name. It's also a description that has pushed the South Carolina Republican out of the shadows and into the forefront of electoral politics.