Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah could move to fill the void left by South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who announced plans Thursday to resign from Congress to take the reigns of The Heritage Foundation.

Higher-profile tea party favorites, such as Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida, are believed to have presidential aspirations and to be uninterested in building a political power base in Congress.

But Republican operatives said the tea-party-affiliated senators that DeMint leaves behind are hardly eager for another activist member in their ranks to be deemed their leader and enforcer on key legislative votes.

“Each have their own brand with their own motivations and their own goals they’d like to accomplish,” a senior Republican Senate aide said.

The Republican senators “who share his viewpoints didn’t like competing for attention or being told they were his gang, so this is probably OK with a lot of folks,” a second GOP Senate aide added.