Joe Biden and Donald Trump are so unpopular that former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura believes he could win the White House if he ran for president this year.
Former Gov. Jesse Ventura boasts he could beat unpopular Trump or Biden if he ran for president
The pro wrestler-turned-politico defended Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr.’s decision to run as third-party candidate.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
April 19, 2024 at 1:26PM
“If I had ballot access in all 50 states and I were allowed to debate, I could beat these two major party candidates,” Ventura told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday evening.
Ventura’s comments came as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign announced that he recently qualified for the Michigan ballot, a key swing state where Democrats worry Kennedy could siphon votes from President Biden. The former Minnesota governor told Burnett he met with Kennedy for two hours to discuss whether he should be the independent candidate’s running mate.
Kennedy ultimately picked attorney Nicole Shanahan as his running mate.
“I have all the admiration in the world for him,” Ventura said of Kennedy. “He has every right to run. And certainly he’s probably going to get a lot of votes.”
During his CNN interview, Ventura pushed back against the notion that third parties are effectively spoilers during presidential elections. The Natural Law Party nominated Kennedy in Michigan.
“Third parties are not spoilers,” Ventura said. “When you go to vote and do your civic duty, you vote for the candidate or the person you most want to be the president of the United States irregardless of their party.”
He added that voting third party “makes you a correct citizen.”
Both former President Trump and Biden are notoriously unpopular candidates. A recent Pew Research poll found that about 1 in 4 Americans have unfavorable views of both men. Ventura used their low favorability as a key point in his support of third-party candidates.
“You’ve got two major party candidates nobody even wants to see this election, let alone vote in it necessarily,” Ventura said.
Still, Burnett reminded Ventura that he had a positive relationship with Trump back in 2000. That’s when the former Minnesota governor asked Trump to consider running as the nominee for the Reform Party.
“Back then, he was a Democrat and pro-choice,” Ventura said. “Today he’s ultra-right and anti-choice. He ain’t the same guy.”
Republicans across the country benefited from favorable tailwinds as President-elect Donald Trump resoundingly defeated Democrat Kamala Harris. But that wasn’t the whole story in Minnesota.
