Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura torpedoed rumors that he has filed to run for president, despite his long running flirtation with the idea.
Ventura said Wednesday that he has not filed to run for president in 2020 in a statement that ripped the media and professed his loyalty to the Green Party. Notably absent from this statement, however, is an indication that he doesn’t intend to run at some point.
Unverified reports began to circulate Wednesday evening that Ventura had “submitted a letter of interest to the Green Party to run for the party’s Presidential nomination.” This lead to a wave of internet speculation about WWE star’s political intentions. Some begged the famous ex-Minnesotan to run while others scoffed at the idea, characterizing him as a failed governor and “conspiracy theorist.”
Ventura himself buried the rumor just hours later with tirade that began by railing against against “slatious clickbait articles” that predicted his candidacy and ended with an endorsement of the Green Party.
Earn your paycheck. Verify something. Anything. Let’s start with: No, I haven’t filed to run for office. Do some fact checking before you state that I’m taking someone on. It’s called ENDORSING a political party. READ the tweets. They’re self explanatory. VOTE GREEN.
— Jesse Ventura (@GovJVentura) April 23, 2020
However, speculation into Ventura’s White House ambitions are not totally unfounded. He suggested during an interview with a Fox affiliate last September that he may use the “element of surprise” to enter the 2020 race once all but two candidates have been eliminated.
“I may be doing things behind the scenes right now,” he added at that time.
In 2018, he also said that Democrats should work with him to oust President Donald Trump from the White House.
Even on Wednesday, just one hour before saying that he has not filed to run, Ventura sent a tweet apparently aimed at those who think he’s unelectable.
Electability. How is that still a term for the media to sling around like it matters in any way?! Didn’t mainstream media decide a long time ago that Trump wasn’t electable? Stop saying that word as if you know what you’re talking about. Same with spoiler. Shame on you.
— Jesse Ventura (@GovJVentura) April 23, 2020
Amidst this campaign related confusion, Ventura has also been also abundantly clear that he dislikes America’s two party system. He likens the Democrats and Republicans, or the “DemoCRIPT[s]” and ReBLOODlican[s]” as he calls them, to “gangs” that “don’t deserve your vote.”
Although Ventura says he’d “rather we have no political parties at all,” he has confirmed that he will vote for the Green party canidate in 2020, as he has in the past. “What I’ve seen from this party in general is worth my vote,” he says.
Kyle Hooten
Kyle Hooten is Managing Editor of Alpha News. His coverage of Minneapolis has been featured on television shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and in print media outlets like the Wall Street Journal.
