Jim DeMint Snubbed Duane Sand For Senate Endorsement

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Written By:
Rob Port

May 14, 2012
11:11pm

Way back in June of last year I wrote about tea party kingmaker Senator Jim DeMint shopping around in North Dakota for a candidate to challenge Rep. Rick Berg who had announced his Senate candidacy just weeks prior.

DeMint spoke to a couple of candidates in the state, and Senate candidate Duane Sand (who is challenging Berg on the primary ballot next month) claims to have been one of them. Now Sand apparently has some poop in his pants over an endorsement from DeMint not materializing and is throwing the Senator under the bus to the media:

This cycle, DeMint has tried to be more selective — in some cases, holding back support and disappointing some allies, like Duane Sand, a senior Navy officer who has yet to receive a DeMint endorsement despite running to the right of the favored Rep. Rick Berg in the North Dakota GOP primary.

“I learned a long time ago not to rely on people in D.C., and this is no exception,” groused Sand, who said DeMint’s aides called a meeting with him last year and encouraged him to run. “It’s disappointing but not surprising.”

Matt Hoskins, a DeMint spokesman, denied his boss sought the meeting with Sand or pledged to support him.
“We still have not seen any evidence that Duane can win this race, so we plan to remain neutral,” Hoskins said.

This is Sand’s fourth (yes, fourth) run at federal office, but the way he’s been burning bridges I can’t imagine he’ll be running another. Or maybe he will. I thought the last two were unlikely.

Not only has Sand failed to demonstrate that he can beat Berg in the upcoming Republican primary – or Democrat Heidi Heitkmap in the general election for that matter – but his fundraising efforts actually seem to be losing him money at this point.

Sand is an opportunist who has glommed on to the tea party movement as justification for his latest quixotic tilt at federal office.

DeMint is right to keep Sand at arm’s length.