He moved to
Custer County, Nebraska in 1882 and to
Broken Bow, Nebraska in 1890 where he farmed. He was deputy treasurer of Custer County from 1890 to 1891. He was elected as a Populist to the
United States House of Representatives from 1891 to 1897, serving first the 3rd district and then the 6th district when the number of representatives from Nebraska was increased following the
1890 national census. He did not run for reelection in 1896. Kem went to
Montrose, Colorado, to grow fruit and raise cattle. While out of office, he led the campaign to appropriate public land for the
Gunnison Tunnel, which was approved by Congress in 1902. He was elected to the
Colorado House of Representatives in 1907. He then moved to
Cottage Grove, Oregon, in 1908, where he became interested in electric light and power enterprises. He worked and served as president of the Cottage Grove Electric Company until it was sold to
Mountain States Power (now PacifiCorp) in 1922. He retired in 1922. While his term in the United States House had been dominated by Populist economic issues, during the second half of his life, Kem increasingly advocated for
racial segregation and
eugenics. He supported the
involuntary sterilization of criminals. ==Personal life==