There might not be an elected leader who has embraced the partisan extremism of modern American politics more than Jim DeMint. Over the past few years, the tea party poster boy and junior United States Senator from South Carolina has become something of a cultish institution of right-wing radicalism.

Now, DeMint has officially gone rogue. Striking out on a one-man mission, the godfather of the tea party announced July 2 that he is forming a super PAC.

DeMint had already mastered the art of operating a hardcore conservative fundraising and political apparatus that existed outside the national Republican Party. Lording over his Senate Conservatives Fund PAC, DeMint had raised $17 million since 2009 to underwrite far-right underdog candidates in GOP primaries from Nebraska to Texas to Ohio to Wisconsin—and to the detriment of his own party when those candidates deemed too extreme by general election voters were vanquished by Democrats.