Sen. Jim DeMint
Former Senator for South Carolina
DeMint was a senator from South Carolina and was a Republican. He served from 2005 to 2012.
He was previously the representative for South Carolina’s 4th congressional district as a Republican from 1999 to 2004.
![Photo of Sen. Jim DeMint [R-SC, 2005-2012]](/static/legislator-photos/400105-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
DeMint is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2013 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills legislators sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 4, 2007 to Jan 2, 2013. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
DeMint was the primary sponsor of 2 bills that were enacted:
- S. 2650 (109th): A bill to designate the Federal courthouse to be constructed in Greenville, South Carolina, as the “Carroll A. Campbell, Jr. Federal Courthouse”.
- H.R. 2952 (106th): To redesignate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 100 Orchard Park Drive in Greenville, South Carolina, as the “Keith D. Oglesby Station”.
Does 2 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
DeMint sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (17%) Economics and Public Finance (17%) Finance and Financial Sector (15%) Taxation (14%) Health (11%) Labor and Employment (9%) International Affairs (9%) Science, Technology, Communications (9%)
Recently Introduced Bills
DeMint recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 3612 (112th): Commemorative Coins Reform Act of 2012
- S. 3551 (112th): A bill to require investigations into and a report on the September …
- S. 3519 (112th): Pay for Printing Act
- S.J.Res. 42 (112th): A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United …
- S. 2191 (112th): A bill to amend the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to …
- S. 2186 (112th): A bill to amend the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to …
- S. 2173 (112th): National Right-to-Work Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2005 to Jan 2013, DeMint missed 110 of 2,484 roll call votes, which is 4.4%. This is much worse than the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Jan 2013. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
