DeMint to Skip CPAC

South Carolina senator Jim DeMint has opted out of the 38th annual Conservative Political Action Conference next month, joining a list of social conservatives upset with the event's inclusion of the gay Republican group GOProud.

"With leading conservatives organizations not participating this year, Sen. DeMint will not be attending. He hopes to attend a unified CPAC next year," DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton said in an e-mail, as reported by Politico's Ben Smith.

The Family Research Council, the Heritage Foundation, and Concerned Women for America have boycotted CPAC in part because of GOProud's attendance.