The Heritage Foundation announced on Tuesday that former Sen. Jim DeMint resigned as the conservative think tank’s president and CEO after failing to resolve “significant and worsening management issues.”
“The Heritage Foundation’s Board of Trustees, by a unanimous vote, has asked for and received the resignation of Jim DeMint as president and CEO of the organization,” the foundation’s chairman Thomas A. Saunders III said in a statement.
Saunders cited “significant and worsening management issues that led to a breakdown of internal communications and cooperation.”
“Jim DeMint and a handful of his closest advisers failed to resolve these problems,” he said. “This was a difficult and necessary decision for the Board to take.”
Saunders said the foundation did not announce DeMint’s ouster earlier, despite several media reports on his impending departure, because it was “trying to resolve this matter amicably.”
The foundation’s former president, Ed Feulner, will take DeMint’s place while the foundation seeks a successor, Saunders announced.
“As Chairman of the Board, I wholeheartedly endorse this change,” he said. “We were compelled to take action.”
Heritage Action in March opposed Republican lawmakers’ bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, saying it did not go far enough. On April 26, the group announced it was no longer opposed to the revised effort if it included an amendment that would, among other things, allow states to opt out of some federal Obamacare requirements.
