65 Republicans in House Choose Bush Over Kemp
WASHINGTON — More than a third of the House Republicans passed over their colleague Jack Kemp today and endorsed the presidential aspirations of Vice President George Bush.
Sixty-five of the 177 House GOP members signed a pledge of support for Bush that was released in a ceremony on the Capitol steps.
“I think this will have national significance,” Bush said of the congressmen’s influence at home.
While the endorsement could be seen as an embarrassment to Kemp of New York, the only House member in the GOP presidential race, his campaign chose to interpret it differently.
“You mean 110 Republican members of Congress refused to support the vice president of the United States?” asked Kemp spokesman John Buckley, who said his boss has been endorsed by 26 House colleagues.
The Kemp campaign was red-faced earlier this year when nine of the 14 Republicans in the New York delegation came out for Bush.
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