Jim DeMint ousted as Heritage Foundation president

(Image credit: Mike Theiler/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 3 May 2017

The Heritage Foundation's board of trustees voted unanimously to give the conservative think tank's president, Jim DeMint, the boot.

In a statement released Tuesday, board chairman Thomas A. Sanders III said that after a "comprehensive and independent" review of the entire organization, the board determined that "there were significant and worsening management issues that led to a breakdown of internal communications and cooperation. While the organization has seen many successes, Jim DeMint and a handful of his closest advisers failed to resolve these problems." The board asked for and received his resignation, Sanders said, and the group's founder, Ed Feulner, will serve as interim president and CEO until a successor is found.

DeMint was a senator from South Carolina when he abruptly resigned four years ago to become president of the Heritage Foundation. Last week, reports began to circulate that he was on the chopping block, with Politico interviewing several people within the organization who thought DeMint "made the think tank too bombastic and political — to the detriment of its research and scholarly aims." They also said there was the "sense that he's made the institution too much about himself."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox