Bucking GOP hierarchy, DeMint supports conservative underdogs
S.C. senator's willingness to defy the party establishment rare for freshman lawmaker.
Sen. Jim DeMint: "We've got a chance in this next election to prove a lot of establishment Republicans wrong and show that anywhere in the country principled conservatives can win."
WASHINGTON South Carolina's Sen. Jim DeMint is using his rising national profile among conservative activists to support and bankroll Republican Senate candidates around the country, some of them underdogs challenging GOP establishment favorites.
DeMint's endorsements of former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio over Gov. Charlie Crist and California state Rep. Chuck DeVore over former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina put him at odds with other prominent Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and fellow South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
In Pennsylvania, DeMint's endorsement of former Rep. Pat Toomey helped prompt incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter to bolt the Republican Party and run for re-election as a Democrat.
DeMint, who has met with or plans to interview 20 GOP candidates in eight states, has started doling out money from his Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee that's raised $1.45 million - most of it from supporters in other states.
"We've got a chance in this next election to prove a lot of establishment Republicans wrong and show that anywhere in the country principled conservatives can win," DeMint told thousands of activists in a Nov. 3 conference call.
DeMint, a first-term senator seeking re-election next year, has attracted conservative followers nationwide for blocking appropriations earmarks, helping to defeat immigration reforms and leading GOP opposition to expanded federal medical benefits.
DeMint's willingness to go outside his party's official endorsement structure - led by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee - is rare for a sitting senator, and virtually unheard of for a freshman.
Katon Dawson, a former S.C. Republican chairman who narrowly lost to Michael Steele in January to head the national party, said DeMint's name increasingly resonates in other states.
"He now is in a prominent leadership role in the Republican Party to where his endorsement matters and means something," Dawson said.
Among 413 donors who've contributed at least $200 to DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund political action committee, only eight are from South Carolina.
DeMint, 58, makes no bones that he's more focused on advancing conservative goals nationwide than on pursuing the parochial interests of his state.
"All of you all over the country - please remember that Senate seats are not about a particular state," DeMint told more than 4,000 listeners on the recent conference call.
"They're about our country," DeMint said. "Every vote I take is not about South Carolina. It's about the United States of America."
DeMint, a resident of heavily Republican Upstate South Carolina, hosted a conference call with Eric Erickson, a founder of the popular conservative blog redstate.com.
After the NRSC endorsed Crist in his run for Congress, Erickson called for his readers not to make any contributions to candidates backed by the official Republican campaign committee.
DeMint was the only senator who addressed tens of thousands of Tea Party protesters Sept. 12 at an anti-Obama rally outside the U.S. Capitol. Some carried signs comparing Obama to Nazi founder Adolf Hitler and al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Susan McManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida, said Democrats are trying to link DeMint with Erickson in a bid similar to Republicans' efforts last year to tie Obama to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the president's former minister in Chicago who had bitterly criticized the United States in sermons.
Obama, though, distanced himself from Wright, while DeMint continues to use Erickson's army of followers to reach conservative activists....full article
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my comment:
All the names mentioned in this article, McConnell, Graham, McCain, Cornyn, all have one thing in common, they are for conservative Nationalism and probably not a clue what it means to be a Federalist Conservative. RINOs are on the hit list and it may be these guys if they don't repent and read the Constitution. Go Eric Erickson of http://www.redstate.com/ ~~~
R. George Dunn
DeMint's endorsements of former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio over Gov. Charlie Crist and California state Rep. Chuck DeVore over former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina put him at odds with other prominent Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and fellow South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
In Pennsylvania, DeMint's endorsement of former Rep. Pat Toomey helped prompt incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter to bolt the Republican Party and run for re-election as a Democrat.
DeMint, who has met with or plans to interview 20 GOP candidates in eight states, has started doling out money from his Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee that's raised $1.45 million - most of it from supporters in other states.
"We've got a chance in this next election to prove a lot of establishment Republicans wrong and show that anywhere in the country principled conservatives can win," DeMint told thousands of activists in a Nov. 3 conference call.
DeMint, a first-term senator seeking re-election next year, has attracted conservative followers nationwide for blocking appropriations earmarks, helping to defeat immigration reforms and leading GOP opposition to expanded federal medical benefits.
DeMint's willingness to go outside his party's official endorsement structure - led by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee - is rare for a sitting senator, and virtually unheard of for a freshman.
Katon Dawson, a former S.C. Republican chairman who narrowly lost to Michael Steele in January to head the national party, said DeMint's name increasingly resonates in other states.
"He now is in a prominent leadership role in the Republican Party to where his endorsement matters and means something," Dawson said.
Among 413 donors who've contributed at least $200 to DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund political action committee, only eight are from South Carolina.
DeMint, 58, makes no bones that he's more focused on advancing conservative goals nationwide than on pursuing the parochial interests of his state.
"All of you all over the country - please remember that Senate seats are not about a particular state," DeMint told more than 4,000 listeners on the recent conference call.
"They're about our country," DeMint said. "Every vote I take is not about South Carolina. It's about the United States of America."
DeMint, a resident of heavily Republican Upstate South Carolina, hosted a conference call with Eric Erickson, a founder of the popular conservative blog redstate.com.
After the NRSC endorsed Crist in his run for Congress, Erickson called for his readers not to make any contributions to candidates backed by the official Republican campaign committee.
DeMint was the only senator who addressed tens of thousands of Tea Party protesters Sept. 12 at an anti-Obama rally outside the U.S. Capitol. Some carried signs comparing Obama to Nazi founder Adolf Hitler and al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Susan McManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida, said Democrats are trying to link DeMint with Erickson in a bid similar to Republicans' efforts last year to tie Obama to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the president's former minister in Chicago who had bitterly criticized the United States in sermons.
Obama, though, distanced himself from Wright, while DeMint continues to use Erickson's army of followers to reach conservative activists....full article
***
my comment:
All the names mentioned in this article, McConnell, Graham, McCain, Cornyn, all have one thing in common, they are for conservative Nationalism and probably not a clue what it means to be a Federalist Conservative. RINOs are on the hit list and it may be these guys if they don't repent and read the Constitution. Go Eric Erickson of http://www.redstate.com/ ~~~
R. George Dunn
Posts
I love Senator DeMint! He loves America and makes no bones about supporting conservative values while going against the Republican elitist establishment. He IMHO would make a great president because of his fighting to keep liberty and freedom for Americans against this administration's forcing tyranny upon the American people.
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