Jim DeMint

Republican Senator from South Carolina (2005–2013); Tea Party leader; president of the Heritage Foundation (2013–2017); the figure who first turned Heritage from a Reaganite policy shop into an activist conservative organization, paving the way for Kevin Roberts’s full MAGA conversion

DeMint’s tenure was contentious internally — one trustee told the press, “DeMint has not only politicized Heritage, he’s also trivialized it.” Under his leadership Heritage Action (the 501(c)(4) advocacy arm) became a tool for whipping House Republicans against insufficiently conservative legislation, fueling the Freedom Caucus dynamic. DeMint was forced out in 2017 and replaced by Kay Cole James, who attempted a “return to normalcy” before Kevin Roberts took over in October 2021 and went much further than DeMint ever did.

See also: Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, Project 2025.