Jim DeMint was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. Before winning election to the House of Representatives in 1998, he founded a successful Greenville based market research firm. In 2004, Jim DeMint became South Carolina’s 55th U.S. Senator. He was recently elected as Chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, a body of active Republican Senators who work to advance conservative legislation.

J. David Woodard holds the Strom Thurmond Chair of Government at Clemson University, where he has taught political science since 1983. He is the author or co-author of several books, including The Conservative Tradition in America (2003), The New Southern Politics (2006), and The America That Reagan Built (2006).