The Hill News

Republican Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.) made nice with his party's Senate nominees, pledging support for all of them, including those with whom he differs.

After a primary cycle earlier this year during which several insurgent Republicans backed by DeMint defeated establishment incumbents or candidates, the South Carolina conservative pledged support for all of the GOP nominees left standing.

"You see me supporting all of our Republican nominees," DeMint said Wednesday evening on Fox News. "They might not all be the same as I am, as far as how they're going to vote, but the Republican Party is the only option we ! have this time."

DeMint made waves within the GOP after having joined with figures like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) to embolden primary voters to nominate especially conservative candidates for Senate. DeMint provided financial support to some of the candidates through his Senate Conservatives Fund, which sometimes put him at odds with GOP leadership and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Some of the candidates to emerge as a result of DeMint's work have left Republicans wondering whether they put their best foot forward in races where they might have fielded a more competitive candidate. Other GOP senators, like Robert Bennett (Utah) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), who lost their primary elections to conservative challengers, have expressed frustration toward DeMint and the new generation of right-leaning candidates.

! But there are also some Republican candidates in the current c! rop of n ominees -- Rep. Roy Blunt in Missouri or Rep. Mark Kirk in Illinois, for instance -- that are seen as more centrist in their orientation, and not necessarily in-line with DeMint's ideological leanings.

DeMint rejected the notion that the intra-party bloodletting is any sign of a small tent.

"It really reveals who wants the big tent in the Republican Party. All of the conservatives that I've supported who lost their primaries are supporting the Republican nominee. This is not true for the moderates who lose," he explained. "They don't have room for conservatives."

But the Palmetto State conservative was somewhat cryptic about what other centrist GOP colleagues in the Senate might expect come 2012, if they don't stick to party principles. Those senators, DeMint said, "may be on the chopping block in 2012."