Everyone needs heroes in life and Jack Kemp was one of mine. I first learned about him when I was a young high school student and I was drawn to his sense of optimism, his love of the American entrepreneurial spirit, and his ability to campaign on conservative issues and win. Yesterday Jack Kemp died from cancer. I’ll mourn his passing. It was just a month ago that I re-read his 1979 book titled “An American Renaissance”. The book outlined many of the plans that Reagan would later implement in the 1980s with large tax cuts, a building up of our military, and a sensible turn away from the failed policies of Jimmy Carter and the malaise of the 1970s. More than any other elected official, Kemp deserves the credit for paving the way for Reagan’s 1980 landslide and the booming success our country enjoyed throughout that decade and into the 1990s. Kemp was one of the most unlikely politicians, but he was also one of our best.

Kemp was elected to congress in 1970 from a Buffalo, NY area district that had voted for Democrat Hubert Humphrey just two years previously. The incumbent Democrat had tried to run for the US Senate, but when he failed to win the nomination he wanted to return to his old seat and found that the Democratic machine was not going to place him back on the ballot. The subsequent in-fighting amongst the Democrats in the district gave Kemp the opening he needed to pull off an upset victory. By stressing his blue collar roots (his dad started off as a truck driver in Los Angeles) and his background as a star football player (he led the Buffalo Bills to championship titles in 1964 and 1965, was a five time all-star, and the AFL MVP in ’65) he was able to garner votes from those that had never voted for a conservative Republican before. It would be his only close election in the 18 years he served in congress.

By the late ‘70s Kemp had emerged as the leading elected official to call for tax cuts and less regulation. His Kemp-Roth bill was signed onto by every Republican in congress and called for a 33% cut in all income taxes across the board over a three year period. Pres. Reagan later signed the bill into law and at first it was derivisevly called Reaganomics. That term disappeared as the economy began to improve. What Kemp and Reagan understood was that cutting taxes would spur a moribund economy that under Carter and the Democrats had suffered under double digit inflation and double digit unemployment – stagflation. Pres. Kennedy had cut marginal tax rates in the early 1960s and Kemp pointed to their success as his blue print. A rising tide lifts all boats and no one did more to convince the American public of that than did Kemp and Reagan. In fact, in 1980 at the Republican National Convention there was a strong push by the delegates to have Kemp picked as Reagan’s running mate. Reagan was a soul mate of Kemp, but he feared that a ticket comprised of two Californians (Kemp was born and raised in L.A.) ,and in which one was an actor and the other an athlete, might not provide enough balance to the ticket. Is there any doubt Kemp could have been elected president in 1988 if he had served as Reagan’s vice president? As it was Kemp did run in 1988, but he did not have the institutional support that Vice President Bush received and though running an aggressive race he was never close to gaining the nomination.

Kemp then spent the next four years as Pres. Bush’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. During that time he preached the need for capitalism and entrepreneurialism to lift up the nation’s poor. He pushed hard for urban enterprise zones and dared to campaign for Republicans in areas where the party had long since given up hopes of winning. In 1994 he crisscrossed the nation for many of the Republicans that would win the first GOP majority in the House since 1954. I was among many that were disappointed when he chose not to run for president in 1996. At the time the political wisdom was that a candidate must raise $30 million dollars to run for president and with the max donation capped at $1,000 Kemp told people that running for president resulted in constantly asking for money all of the time. He said it was like “filling a bathtub with a teaspoon.” Later that year, after having first supported Steve Forbes’ campaign, Kemp was surprised to be picked as Bob Dole’s running mate. He reveled in the campaign and to many conservatives he was the star of the ticket.

I met Jack Kemp when I was 19 years old and working for the Republican Party of Texas. Unable to afford the cost of attending a fundraiser he was headlining in Dallas, I asked if I could volunteer to work the event in order to meet him. I was lucky that they said yes. At the time I was just starting a cable access tv show I produced and hosted in Austin called “The Starboard Side.” After the event was over I got to speak with Kemp for a few moments. He was a class act and he even agreed to film a promo spot for my show right then and there. I turned on the camera and Kemp, with his ebullient nature smiled at the camera and completely unrehearsed said, “Hi, I used to be Jack Kemp. No, I really am Jack Kemp and you’re watching The Starboard Side with James Crabtree. Don’t forget The Starboard Side.” A few weeks later I received a signed photo from the event of the two of us together. It still hangs on the wall in my den today. Jack Kemp was one of my heroes. I know I won’t forget him.