Stump was born in Phoenix, and was a U.S. Navy World War II combat veteran, where he served on the USS Tulagi from 1943 to 1946.

He graduated from Tolleson Union High School in 1947, and Arizona State University in 1951 where he was a member of the Delta Chi fraternity.

In November 1997, Stump was one of eighteen Republicans in the House to co-sponsor a resolution by Bob Barr that sought to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton.

He'd chaired the House Veterans' Affairs Committee from 1995 to 2001, when he was forced to give that post up due to caucus-imposed term limits.

[16] Stump sponsored bills to make English the official language for government business and to alter laws so that children born on US soil to non-citizen parents would not automatically be citizens.

[17] He received very low scores from the National Council of Senior Citizens, the American Civil Liberties Union, the AFL–CIO, the NAACP, and the League of Conservation Voters.

[18] Although his district included the entire northwestern portion of Arizona, the great majority of its residents lived in the West Valley.

However, Stump told The Arizona Republic that he saw the farm as "my place of business," and knew that "nobody ever thought I resided there."

[19] Stump would have been well within his rights to claim his Phoenix home as his official residence, as members of the House are only required to live in the state they represent.

After the Associated Press mistakenly placed Bob Hope's obituary on its web site in June 1998, Stump announced on the floor of the House that the entertainer had died.

Stump died June 20, 2003, of myelodysplasia, a blood disorder and was buried at Greenwood/Memory Lawn Mortuary & Cemetery in Phoenix with full military honors.