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Jesse Ventura (born July 15, 1951, as James George Janos) was elected the 38th Governor of Minnesota on November 3, 1998, after a career as professional wrestler, actor, mayor, and radio talk show host. He ran as a candidate for the Reform Party and "shocked the world," as he phrased it, when he unexpectedly beat the major-party candidates: St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman (Republican) and Minnesota Attorney General Hubert "Skip" Humphrey (Democratic-Farmer-Labor). Ventura, who spent considerably less than his opponents, is widely regarded as one of the first candidates to effectively use the Internet in a political campaign. He served as governor from January 4, 1999 to January 6, 2003.
Ventura was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He (then known by his legal name of Janos) graduated from Minneapolis's Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1969. From 1969 to 1973, he served in the United States Navy as a Navy SEAL. Although Ventura served with Underwater Demolition Team 12 during his time on active duty, he was never a full-time member of a SEAL team. However, Naval Special Warfare policy states that Ventura, just like any other Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL graduate, deserves and has earned the title of SEAL.
He returned to Minnesota and attended North Hennepin Community College in the mid-1970s at the same time he began weight lifting and wrestling. He began to use the stage name Jesse "The Body" Ventura. In 1975, he married his wife Terry (the couple now has two grown children).
As a professional wrestler, Ventura wrestled as a "heel" (the "evil" characters), and often used the motto "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat!" Late in his career he developed an adversarial relationship with WWF owner Vince McMahon.
Ventura continued to wrestle until the mid-1980s when health problems forced him to retire from the ring. He began to do color commentary on television for wrestling, and then did the same on radio for a few National Football League teams. Ventura acted in the 1987 movie Predator, whose cast included future California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and future Kentucky Gubernatorial Candidate Sonny Landham. He had a starring role in the 1991 sci-fi movie Brooklyn Park, Minnesota in 1990 and served from 1991 to 1995. Between 1995 and his run for governor, Ventura had a radio call-in show in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market.
Ventura's main campaign promise was a tax refund to Minnesota residents. The state was running a budget surplus at the time, and Ventura believed that the money should be given back to the public. In political debates, he often admitted that he hadn't formed an opinion on certain policy questions. Ventura frequently described himself as "fiscally conservative and socially liberal."
Later as governor, he came to support a unicameral (one-house) legislature, light-rail public transport, property tax reform, gay rights and abortion rights. While funding public school education generously, he opposed teachers unions, and did not have a high regard for the public funding of higher-education institutions. Additionally, Ventura supported the use of medicinal marijuana. Prior to the presidential election of 2000, Ventura supported the role of third parties in national politics, and voiced interest in the concept of instant runoff voting.
Lacking a party base in the Minnesota House and Senate, Governor Ventura's vetoes were often overridden.
Ventura was elected on a Reform party ticket, but he never received support from Ross Perot's Texas faction. When the Reform party was taken over by Pat Buchanan supporters before the presidential elections of 2000, Ventura left the party in February 2000, referring to it as 'hopelessly dysfunctional'. However, he maintained close ties to the Independence Party of Minnesota, which also broke from the Reform party around the same time.
Ventura has produced several controversial quotations. In one of his books, he mentions a visit to a prostitute in Reno, Nevada, and states that prostitution should be legal.
Ventura was helped through college by support from the G.I. Bill, and he has recommended that individuals join the military to pay for college. During one protest of college students, he said:
In a Playboy interview, he said:
Ventura endorsed equal rights for people who don't believe in God by declaring July 4, 2002, "Indivisible Day" through this proclamation:
Supposedly by accident, Ventura also proclaimed October 13 to 19, 2002 as "Christian Heritage Week."
Ventura vetoed a bill to promote recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools, saying:
Ventura has been criticized for privately profiting from his heightened popularity. He was hired as host for the failed XFL football enterprise and published several books during his tenure as governor. On his weekly radio show, he often criticized the media for focusing on these deals rather than on his policy proposals.
After a trade mission to mainland China in 2002, he announced that he wouldn't run for a second term as governor. During another trade mission to Cuba in the summer of 2002, he denounced the economic sanctions of the US against that country.
Ventura greatly disapproved of some of the actions that took place at the 2002 memorial for Senator Paul Wellstone, his family, and others, who died in a plane crash on October 25. Ventura, like many others, believed that the memorial (which got to be very raucous at times) had turned into a sort of political rally. Ventura's opinions of the event were widely publicized. Because of the dispute, he appointed Dean Barkley to represent Minnesota in the Senate until Wellstone's term expired in January, 2003
Ventura announced that he would not run for a second term as governor in 2002. There were several reasons for this decision. One of the major contributors was his sense that the media had unfairly hounded him and his family for personal behaviors and beliefs while neglecting coverage of important policy issues. His wife and children also felt the strain. Later, Ventura told a reporter for The Boston Globe that he would have run for a second term if he had been single. He was succeded in his office by Tim Pawlenty in a race that saw four major-party candidates (at the time, the Republican, DFL, Independence, and Green parties were all considered to be "major" by the state).
Ventura began a cable television show in October, 2003 on MSNBC called Jesse Ventura's America. The show was broadcast once a week, on Saturdays, unlike many MSNBC shows which are on five nights a week (this show was originally planned for five nights a week as well, but MSNBC executives changed their minds). At the time of its airing, Jesse Ventura's America was the only national television show filmed in Minnesota. However, the show is now on indefinite hiatus.
In 2004, Ventura started teaching a study group at Harvard University for a semester as a visiting fellow at the Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics. His 90-minute study group focused on third party politics, campaign finance, the war on drugs, and other relevant political issues. Ventura scheduled multiple famous friends to appear for his seminars including Dean Barkley and Richard Marcinko.
On March 14, 2004, Ventura appeared as an honored guest at World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) Wrestlemania XX as part of the "WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2004." Later in the evening he approached the ring to interview Donald Trump, who had a front row seat at the event. Trump affirmed that Ventura would receive his moral and financial support were he to ever re-enter the world of politics. Alluding to the 2008 election, Ventura boldly announced that "we need to put a wrestler in the white house in 2008," much to the amusement of the cheering crowd. As of yet he has made no official announcement concerning whether or not he intends to run for President.
Ventura is serving as an advisory board member for a new group called Operation Truth, a nonprofit organization set up "to give voice to troops who served in Iraq."
| Preceded by: Arne Carlson | Governors of Minnesota | Succeeded by: Tim Pawlenty |
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