Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) will resign his post in January to head up a right-wing think tank, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The two-term Senator and proponent of term limits was re-elected in 2010 amid an anti-incumbent frenzy that he helped create, much to the chagrin of his fellow Republicans. DeMint previously announced that he was already planning to leave Congress after his second term was up.
Instead, the Journal notes that he'll leave the Senate to lead The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank known for promoting misinformation about climate science and supporting tax cuts for the rich and debasing social safety net programs like unemployment insurance and Medicare.
The Heritage Foundation was also a decades-long promoter of the individual mandate to buy health insurance, but they backed away from it once President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats came to support the idea. The mandate is now the law of the land.
The Journal added that The Heritage Foundation's current president, 71-year-old Ed Feulner, will take a new job as the think tank's "chancellor," a new role created just for him.
DeMint's move means South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) will appoint his replacement in the coming months. That successor will face a special election in 2014.
