Jack Kemp, the former tax-cutting Republican politician and American footballer, who ran for the White House in 1996 as Bob Dole’s running mate, died of cancer on Saturday at the age of 73.

As a Republican congressman, Kemp latched on to supply-side economics and advocated sweeping tax cuts as a means to stimulate production and growth. Initially stymied in Congress, his legislation found a sympathetic supporter in Ronald Reagan, who put forward a fiscal revolution as a campaign pledge in 1980 before his victory in the presidential election.