Some people have theorized that I lurched to prove myself intellectually. But it was not any lurch. It was more a kind of awakening.

However Kemp was able to use the nomination to promote his opposition to Clinton's partial birth abortion ban veto. Although Kemp coaxed Bush to support a $4 billion housing program that encouraged public housing tenants to buy their own apartments the Democratic Congress allocated only $361 million to the plan. His campaign was on an early positive course with many key early endorsements in New Hampshire but Bush held the support of much of the Republican establishment in New York.

As a proponent of both Chicago school and supply-side economics he is notable as an influence upon the Reagan agenda and the architect of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 which is known as the Kemp–Roth tax cut. He was the Republican Party's nominee for Vice President in the 1996 election where he was the running mate of presidential nominee Bob Dole. Kemp had previously contended for the presidential nomination in the 1988 Republican primaries.