Kemp didn’t get that Cabinet post until Bush, Sr. gave it to him in 1989. Truth be told, I’m rather glad he didn’t get the VP slot, because while Kemp is a nice man with some interesting ideas, his judgment with respect to whom to form alliances with was shockingly naive. He wanted the GOP to make common-cause with the likes of Louis Farrakhan in order to get Black votes. Yeah, angry Black Muslim Republicans that believe that the Mother Ship is coming for them to pick them up and kill Whitey. Lord Almighty.
Jack Kemp was a student of Jude Wanniski, the founder of supply side economics. While Jack couldn’t accept Jude’s wacky pro-Islam, anti-Israel views, some of it must have rubbed off on him.