WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- Former congressman and Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp died Saturday at age 73 after a battle with cancer , his family announced . Jack Kemp , a former congressman from New York , was the GOP 's vice presidential candidate in 1996 . A onetime professional football player , Kemp served nine terms in Congress as a representative from New York and was former Sen. Bob Dole 's running mate in 1996 . He was a leading advocate of `` supply-side '' tax cuts , advancing the argument that cutting taxes would boost economic growth and yield more revenue for the federal government . `` The only way to oppose a bad idea is to replace it with a good idea , and I like to think that I have spent my life trying to promote good ideas , '' he told CNN in a 1996 interview . Kemp `` passed peacefully into the presence of the Lord '' Sunday evening , a family statement said . He disclosed his illness in January . Watch . `` During the treatment of his cancer , Jack expressed his gratitude for the thoughts and prayers of so many friends , a gratitude which the Kemp family shares , '' the family said . Watch how Jack Kemp made transition from football to politics » . Kemp quarterbacked the Buffalo Bills to back-to-back American Football League championships in 1964 and 1965 , before the merger that created the modern NFL . When he retired in 1970 after 13 seasons , the California native ran for Congress and represented the Buffalo area for 18 years in the House of Representatives . View photos of Jack Kemp 's life » . `` He championed free-market principles that improved the lives of millions of Americans and helped unleash an entrepreneurial spirit that all of us still benefit from today , '' Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Kentucky , said in a statement issued late Saturday . The 1981 tax cuts signed into law by Ronald Reagan , which cut marginal tax rates from 70 percent to 50 percent , bore Kemp 's name as a co-sponsor . Critics mocked the policy as `` trickle-down '' economics and pointed to the decade 's growing budget deficits as evidence that supply-side theories did n't work , but it has been GOP orthodoxy ever since . Kemp mounted an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988 , losing the Republican primaries to George H.W . Bush . But once in office , Bush made Kemp his secretary of housing and urban development -- a post Kemp used to promote what he called an `` empowerment '' agenda of tax breaks for urban businesses and expanded home ownership . iReport.com : Share your memories of Kemp . Unlike many of the other conservatives of his era , Kemp actively courted African-American support . In 1992 , he told CNN 's `` Larry King Live '' that the GOP `` could be a Lincoln party in terms of attracting black and brown and men and women of color and low-income status and immigrant status who want a shot at the American dream for their children . '' CNN Political Director Sam Feist contributed to this report .
Kemp , former congressman and vice presidential candidate , dies at millions . Jack Kemp announced in 1989-1993 he was battling cancer . Before politics , Kemp was a professional football quarterback . Kemp also served as secretary of housing and urban development ( January )