COLUMBIA --- Over the past year, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint has morphed from a relatively unknown Southern Republican into a national champion of conservative activists.
It came about largely through his unabashed criticism of President Obama and his efforts to elect anti-establishment candidates in other states.
On Monday, he will bring a beneficiary of those efforts to South Carolina for a three-city campaign tour dubbed "The Comeback Begins."
Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, 38, credits DeMint's early support with launching him into a strong position in his Senate race against Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. As of last month, DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund had raised or spent more than $340,000 on Rubio's campaign. A Quinnipiac University Poll in January showed Rubio edging ahead of Crist among Republicans. That's a striking change from last May, when Rubio trailed Crist by 46 percentage points.
"When it was suggested Marco jump out of the race entirely, DeMint's support was a shot in the arm in terms of momentum," said Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos.
Such influence is new for DeMint, 58, who lectures that Congress must control national spending and stop expanding government.
"He's really become a rising star by singularly focusing on his message," said Scott Huffmon, a Winthrop University political scientist and poll director. "He ended up tapping into an angry sentiment" with the rise of the tea party movement.
Political experts trace DeMint's national name recognition to his prediction last July that the health care overhaul could be Obama's Waterloo.
"I think that put him on a lot of folks' radar screen," Huffmon said.
A Republican consultant said DeMint stood out as an early and outspoken critic of Obama and Democrats' health care plans.
"He did that at a time other people were scared to because the president's poll numbers were high," said Brent Littlefield, also a spokesman for the American Conservative Union, which gives DeMint a perfect voting score.
Littlefield said DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund has increased his influence, while leading to tensions with some colleagues.
Launched in 2008, the fund has boosted the campaigns of five candidates, from Florida to California, by more than $500,000, and spent additional money on recruiting local activists.
"I've been criticized by some of my Republican colleagues for saying I'd rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who believe in the principles of freedom than 60 who don't believe in anything," he said at last month's Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. "Let me make myself even clearer: I'd rather have 30 Marco Rubios in the Senate than 60 Arlen Specters."
A Democrat looking to oust DeMint in November, Victor Rawl, accuses the senator of spending too much time promoting his agenda around the nation and not enough on bettering the lives of South Carolinians.
DeMint said Friday he still concentrates on South Carolina issues. He said he preferred to be a quiet team player, but after three terms in the U.S. House and a few years in the Senate, he grew increasingly frustrated that Republicans had spent too much money and "thrown away our majority."
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