Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., the maverick conservative senator who runs the Senate Conservatives’ Fund and perhaps his party leadership’s least favorite senator, just held a joint conference call to endorse Ron Johnson, a businessman and candidate for Senate from Wisconsin.

An interesting moment came when Alex Pappas of The Daily Caller asked whether Johnson would support DeMint in a Senate leadership election. Before Johnson could give an answer that would potentially hurt him with the GOP leadership, DeMint jumped in and declared the point moot. “I’m not running for a leadership position,” he said.

DeMint said that he is not looking to change the Senate GOP leadership as much as to “pull the leadership” in the right direction. After the call, The Examiner asked DeMint’s office about earlier reports that he was open to a leadership race, to which the senator gave this written reply: “I already have a leadership position as [Republican] Steering [Committee] Chairman and learned you don’t need a title, but the courage to fight for your principles, to lead in the Senate.”