Kemp, Jack

▪ American politician

in full  Jack French Kemp  

born July 13, 1935, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.

 

 conservative American politician who was the Republican nominee for vice president in 1996.

      Kemp's father owned a small trucking firm; his mother was a public school teacher and social worker. Kemp attended Occidental College in Los Angeles (B.A., 1957), where he excelled as a football quarterback. After brief stints with various professional teams, Kemp led the Buffalo Bills to American Football League championships in 1964 and 1965. Despite his relatively small stature, Kemp was an effective quarterback and a strong team leader.

      He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1970, representing suburban Buffalo, N.Y., for nine terms. An articulate and passionate defender of conservative causes, Kemp supported the Vietnam War, advocated high levels of defense spending, championed low tax rates, and opposed abortion rights. At the same time, he was a strong supporter of civil-rights legislation and sought to use tax incentives to encourage economic development in poor urban areas, calling himself a “bleeding-heart conservative.” During the mid-1970s Kemp was heavily influenced by the supply-side economist Arthur Laffer (Laffer, Arthur B.); he played a prominent role in Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign and cosponsored the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, which sharply reduced taxes on individuals and businesses.

      After a failed presidential bid in 1988, Kemp was appointed secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the administration of President George Bush. He restored public trust to the scandal-tainted department and continued to work for urban revitalization through targeted tax reductions, but he largely failed in his efforts to implement his ambitious initiatives. Upon leaving the government, Kemp was a sought-after speaker on the lecture circuit. In 1996 he was selected by Robert Dole as the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee.

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