James Warren DeMint (born September 2, 1951) has been a U.S. Senator from South Carolina since 2005. He had previously represented South Carolina's 4th congressional district from 1999 to 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Early life and education
DeMint was born in Greenville, South Carolina, one of four children. DeMint's parents, Tom Eugene DeMint and the former Betty W. (Rawlings) Batson,[1] divorced when he was five. His mother operated a dance studio. DeMint was educated at the Christ Church Episcopal School, Greenville, South Carolina and Wade Hampton High School in Greenville. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee and an MBA from Clemson University.
Prior to entering politics, DeMint worked in the field of market research. In 1983, he founded his own research firm, the DeMint Group. He was president of this corporation until 1998.
U.S. House of Representatives
In 1998, Fourth District Congressman Bob Inglis decided to keep his promise to serve only three terms and ran against Senator Fritz Hollings. DeMint won the Republican primary for the district, which includes Greenville and Spartanburg. He then won the general election in November. The district is considered the most Republican in the state, and he did not face a serious or well-funded Democratic opponent in 1998 or in his two re-election campaigns in 2000 and 2002.
U.S. Senate
2004 election
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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. Some thought DeMint was at a disadvantage since South Carolina had never elected two senators from the same region of the state. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina's senior senator, was also from the Upstate (and had represented the neighboring 3rd District from 1995 to 2003).
In the Republican primary on June 8, 2004 DeMint placed a distant second, 18 percentage points behind former governor David Beasley. 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 the dark days of Reconstruction when Radical Republicans imposed harsh sanctions on South Carolina and Republicans 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 without specifically retracting their substantive claims, 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.[2]
DeMint has since re-tooled his anti-homosexual rhetoric as a public health initiative. In an interview on NPR's Diane Rehm Show on January 31, 2008, he cited the prevalence of certain diseases among homosexuals as his reason for opposing gay marriage, but did not elaborate on how marriage contributes to the spread of those diseases.
Committees
- Committee on Foreign Relations
- Subcommittee on European Affairs (Ranking Member)
- Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection
- Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Democracy and Human Rights
- Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
- Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
- Subcommittee on Interstate Commerce, Trade, and Tourism (Ranking Member)
- Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard
- Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Innovation
- Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security
- Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
- Subcommittee on Energy
- Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests
- Subcommittee on Water and Power
Political positions and actions
DeMint was ranked by National Journal as the most conservative United States Senator in their March, 2007 conservative/liberal rankings.[3] He was again ranked as the most conservative Senator in 2008.[4]
DeMint believes openly gay individuals and single mothers should not teach in public schools.[5] He has been one of the strongest supporters of allowing school prayer and has introduced legislation that would allow schools to display banners reading God Bless America. [1]
DeMint favors banning all forms of abortion. DeMint introduced a bill that would address the decline in IPOs in the U.S. by clarifying the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate accountability legislation. He also introduced a hybrid tax reform plan that would attempt to simplify the tax code.
DeMint would like to require all illegal immigrants currently in the United States to return to their home countries to apply for legal reinstatement. He is also against the Guest Worker program and is in favor of establishing English as the country's official language.
DeMint was strongly supported by the fiscally conservative political group Club for Growth. He has been strongly praised by the group for anti-pork activities in the 109th Congress.
DeMint, a Presbyterian, has strongly endorsed Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon. This is despite some instances of anti-Mormon rhetoric taking place during the Republican primaries in the Deep South.[6]
On February 6, 2008 Jim DeMint was joined by Saxby Chambliss, Tom Coburn, John Cornyn, James Inhofe, and David Vitter in the Senate to introduce the Semper Fi Act of 2008 which would strip federal funding from Berkeley in response to the Berkeley Marine Corps Recruiting Center controversy.[7] The bill would strip $2.1 million in education and youth nutrition earmarks for the city, and earmarks for the nearby University of California, Berkeley, a state institution unaffiliated with the city, and would instead earmark it for the Marines.
Personal
DeMint married his high school sweetheart, Debbie Henderson, on September 1, 1973; the couple have four children.
In April 2003, the Associated Press reported that DeMint was one of six members of Congress living in a Capitol Hill townhouse subsidized by The Family, a Christian religious organization with ties to fellow Senators Hillary Clinton and Sam Brownback.[8]
Electoral history
2004 South Carolina United States Senatorial Election
| Jim DeMint (R) 53.7% |
| Inez Tenenbaum (D) 44.1% |
| Patrick Tyndall (Constitution) 0.8% |
| Rebekah Sutherland (Lib.) 0.7% |
| Tee Ferguson (United Citizens Party) 0.4% |
| Efia Nwangaza (Green) 0.3% |
Footnotes
External links
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Current members of the United States Senate |
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AL: Shelby (R), Sessions (R)
AK: Stevens (R), Murkowski (R)
AZ: McCain (R), Kyl (R)
AR: Lincoln (D), Pryor (D)
CA: Feinstein (D), Boxer (D)
CO: Allard (R), Salazar (D)
CT: Dodd (D), Lieberman (I)
DE: Biden (D), Carper (D)
FL: Nelson (D), Martinez (R)
GA: Chambliss (R), Isakson (R)
HI: Inouye (D), Akaka (D)
ID: Craig (R), Crapo (R)
IL: Durbin (D), Obama (D)
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IN: Lugar (R), Bayh (D)
IA: Grassley (R), Harkin (D)
KS: Brownback (R), Roberts (R)
KY: McConnell (R), Bunning (R)
LA: Landrieu (D), Vitter (R)
ME: Snowe (R), Collins (R)
MD: Mikulski (D), Cardin (D)
MA: Kennedy (D), Kerry (D)
MI: Levin (D), Stabenow (D)
MN: Coleman (R), Klobuchar (D)
MS: Cochran (R), Wicker (R)
MO: Bond (R), McCaskill (D)
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MT: Baucus (D), Tester (D)
NE: Hagel (R), Nelson (D)
NV: Reid (D), Ensign (R)
NH: Gregg (R), Sununu (R)
NJ: Lautenberg (D), Menendez (D)
NM: Domenici (R), Bingaman (D)
NY: Schumer (D), Clinton (D)
NC: Dole (R), Burr (R)
ND: Conrad (D), Dorgan (D)
OH: Voinovich (R), Brown (D)
OK: Inhofe (R), Coburn (R)
OR: Wyden (D), Smith (R)
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PA: Specter (R), Casey (D)
RI: Reed (D), Whitehouse (D)
SC: Graham (R), DeMint (R)
SD: Johnson (D), Thune (R)
TN: Alexander (R), Corker (R)
TX: Hutchison (R), Cornyn (R)
UT: Hatch (R), Bennett (R)
VT: Leahy (D), Sanders (I)
VA: Warner (R), Webb (D)
WA: Murray (D), Cantwell (D)
WV: Byrd (D), Rockefeller (D)
WI: Kohl (D), Feingold (D)
WY: Enzi (R), Barrasso (R)
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