Jack Kemp

Jack Kemp, born in 1935, American politician and professional football player. Kemp was a Republican congressman from New York from 1971 to 1989, served as secretary of housing and urban development from 1989 to 1993, and ran for vice president of the United States on the Republican ticket with Senator Robert Dole in 1996.

Jack Francis Kemp was born in Los Angeles, California, where his father owned a small trucking company and where his mother taught Spanish and served as a social worker. After graduating from Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1953, Kemp played professional football as a quarterback for the San Diego Chargers and the Buffalo Bills of the now-defunct American Football League. In 1964 and 1965 he led the Bills to a league championship, and in 1965 he was named the league's most valuable player.

A series of concussions and other injuries ended Kemp's football career in 1969, and the following year he ran successfully for the U.S. Congress. For nine years Kemp represented the Buffalo, New York area, making a name for himself as an advocate of lower taxation and of programs designed to help the poor. A leading proponent of supply-side economics, which holds that decreasing tax rates brings in greater government revenue, he helped spearhead President Ronald Reagan's tax cuts of 1981.

In 1988, Kemp ran for the Republican presidential nomination but lost to Vice President George Bush, in whose cabinet he later served as secretary of housing and urban development. During his tenure, Kemp pressed hard to create so-called enterprise zones, special tax breaks and incentives designed to spur business activity in areas with high unemployment.

A self-described “wildcatter,” Kemp's strong-willed behavior often put him at odds with his political party. At the end of the Republican primaries in 1996, he appeared to banish himself completely from Republican ranks by endorsing presidential candidate Steve Forbes when it was clear that Bob Dole had already won the party's nomination. Surprising everyone, Dole then selected Kemp several months later to be his running mate. The two had been bitter rivals during their careers, yet Dole thought Kemp would be the perfect salesman for the tax cut Dole had put at the center of his campaign.

As a candidate, Kemp threw his considerable enthusiasm into selling the tax plan, which was similar to those he had championed throughout his career. He also campaigned in the inner cities, traditionally not considered Republican strongholds, arguing that the Democratic Party had taken the minority vote for granted and that he and Dole would fight for every vote. Despite Kemp's efforts, however, he and Dole lost to President Bill Clinton and Vice President Albert Gore, Jr., receiving 41 percent of the vote to Clinton's 49 percent.