Jack Kemp ─ The Bleeding-Heart Conservative Who Changed America

The definitive biography of Jack Kemp, and why his legacy matters to today’s GOP.

As today’s Republicans struggle to broaden their base and promote reform, some are reviving the legacy of Jack Kemp, one of the most important Republicans of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.

Kemp approached politics the same way he played quarterback for the Bills: with a refusal to accept defeat. Yet he was also willing to compromise to get things done, and his commitment to the working class and minorities attracted voters who usually rejected the GOP. He was instrumental in helping Ronald Reagan create an era of sustained and widespread prosperity.

Drawing on never-published papers and the Kemp oral history project, noted journalists Morton Kondracke and Fred Barnes trace Kemp’s whole life, from his childhood through his pro football career to his unusually influential years as congressman and cabinet secretary. Despite many ups and downs, including failed presidential and vice presidential bids, Kemp proved that a bleeding-heart conservative” could redefine what was possible in American politics.

MORTON KONDRACKE has been a journalist for nearly fifty years, including service as a regular commentator for the Fox News Channel, a panelist onThe McLaughlin Group, co-host of The Beltway Boys, executive editor ofThe New Republic, columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and executive editor for Roll Call. His bookSaving Milly was a New York Times bestseller.

FRED BARNES is co-founder and executive editor of The Weekly Standard and a regular commentator for Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News Channel. He has previously reported and edited forThe New Republic and co-hosted The Beltway Boys, among many other print and television journalism positions.