Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said Thursday that he’s “not leaving the fight” just because he’s leaving the Senate.
“I’m not leaving the fight,” DeMint said in his farewell speech on the floor Thursday. “And I hope to raise my game in my next phase.”
DeMint announced earlier this month that he’d leave the Senate by the end of the year to run The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing advocacy group.
DeMint said he hopes to take “American ideas” that are being implemented in states and share them with people around the country in order to convince them that Washington needs to enact similar measures.
“If we can win the hearts and the minds of the American people, than I know we can engage them and enlist them to reach out to all of you here to adopt the ideas that we know work,” DeMint said.
He used the example of the Michigan legislature passing a right-to-work law that allows workers in that state to decline to pay union dues. He said that idea wasn’t a “political idea,” but an “American idea that works.”
DeMint said that if he can convince the American people that ideas like that are best for the country, that the voters would then only elect lawmakers who agree.
“What I hope I can do from this point is take these ideas and policies that I know work and that The Heritage Foundation has been doing research on for years to show these work … and connect these ideas with the American people.”
Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has been appointed to replace DeMint at the start of the new Congress.
