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# Senator Jim DeMint: Spiritual Leader of the Tea Party

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yS740EkT.m3u8" -->
## Video: Senator Jim DeMint: Spiritual Leader of the Tea Party

[Watch (HLS stream): Senator Jim DeMint: Spiritual Leader of the Tea Party](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yS740EkT.m3u8) (2:07)

![Senator Jim DeMint: Spiritual Leader of the Tea Party](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/yS740EkT/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2010-11-18. Michael Crowley discusses the TIME story about South Carolina senator Jim DeMint, whose conservatism has made him a leader of the Tea Party movement._


---

Jul 27, 2023 3:07 PM UTC

---

## More From This Series

[All Videos](https://time.com/video/)

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### Marco Rubio's Tea Party Triumph

[A Tea Party on the Left Coast](/video/EwWZqo2d/)

### A Tea Party on the Left Coast

[Meet the Tea Party](/video/O6M85ezx/)

### Meet the Tea Party

---


## Transcript

>> So my story is about South Carolina Republican senator, Jim DeMint, who you might think of as the sort of spiritual leader of the Tea Party. There are two reasons for this. One is that he really was instrumental in the kind of rise of the Tea Party candidates- among the very first to endorse for instance Florida's senator- elect Marco Rubio who was one of the biggest Tea Party stars at the moment.

>> Marco, Marco, Marco.

>> And he also endorsed Christine O'Donnell who went down in flames. He has really done a lot to fuel the Tea Party movement around the country for better and for worse depending on where you stand. And the second point is that he really embodies their principles- just an advocate of real physical discipline, balanced budgets, much lower taxes, much smaller government. DeMint right after the midterms said, " We've got to come out and make it clear to the public that in the Senate we are not going to tolerate budget earmarks anymore ." Mitch McConnell the Senate Republican leader said, " Hey, wait a minute.

Let's not get too carried away. There's some good things about the earmarks ," and came up with a list of rationales why- you know, it wasn't that important to get rid of earmarks and DeMint said, " No way. Conservative candidates around the country made this promise to the voters and we have to show people that things are gonna change in Washington ." Well, on Monday afternoon, Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, put out a statement saying, " You know what? We're gonna do it DeMint's way ," basically saying, " I surrender. I cry uncle ." And it was a demonstration that DeMint really has power on Capitol Hill right now.

But the hard work comes as DeMint pursues his goals of shrinking the size of government and balancing the budget, because that's gonna involve cutting spending in programs that are popular with a lot of different constituencies who are gonna be screaming and yelling on Capitol Hill, " Don't touch this. Don't touch that ," and that's where it gets a lot harder, particularly with Barack Obama trying to stop them and that will be one of the most interesting battles on Capitol Hill over the next several months.

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