James Warren DeMint (born September 2, 1951) is an American businessman, author, and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from South Carolina and as president of The Heritage Foundation.

[6] DeMint's first involvement in politics began in 1992, when he was hired by Republican Representative Bob Inglis to work on his campaign for South Carolina's Fourth Congressional District.

[citation needed] DeMint finished second in the Republican primary behind State Senator and fellow Greenville resident Michael Fair.

[13][14] He broke rank with his party and powerful state interests several times: DeMint was one of 34 Republicans to oppose President Bush's No Child Left Behind program and one of 25 to oppose Medicare Part D.[11] He sought to replace No Child Left Behind with a state-based block-grant program for schools.

[6] DeMint also worked to privatize Social Security by allowing the creation of individual investment accounts in the federal program.

His votes led South Carolina's influential textile industry to heavily oppose him in his subsequent House and Senate races.

[citation needed] In the Republican primary on June 8, 2004, DeMint placed a distant second, 10.3% behind former governor David Beasley and just barely ahead of Thomas Ravenel.

[citation needed] DeMint then faced Democratic state education superintendent Inez Tenenbaum in the November general election.

[citation needed] 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.

[32] In 2009, DeMint was one of two senators who voted against Hillary Clinton's appointment to Secretary of State, and the next year he introduced legislation to completely repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare.

[42] On December 17, 2012, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley announced that she would name Congressman Tim Scott to fill DeMint's vacated seat.

[47] He has supported many changes to federal spending, such as prioritizing a balanced budget amendment instead of increasing the national debt limit.

[48] As a senator, DeMint proposed a two-year earmark ban to prevent members of Congress from spending federal money on projects in their home states.

[49] In 2008, presidential candidates John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama co-sponsored DeMint's earmark reform proposal, although it ultimately failed to pass in the Senate.

[68] The trip was approved by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell but opposed by Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry.

[68] In late 2009, DeMint criticized Barack Obama for waiting eight months into his first term as president before nominating a new head of the Transportation Security Administration.

[69] After the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 in December 2009, DeMint stated that President Obama had not put enough focus on terrorism while in office.

In his book Now 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.

[80] 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.

[89] 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.

[94] 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.

"[95] In June 2017, DeMint became a senior advisor to Citizens for Self-Governance, a group which is seeking to call a convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution in order to reduce federal government spending and power.

[102] DeMint's wife, Debbie, is one of three children of the late Greenville advertising entrepreneur and South Carolina Republican figure James Marvin Henderson Sr.[103]