What if in 2004, Jesse Ventura had ran for president against Bush and Kerry as an Independent? Could he have gotten into the debates? How well would he have done nationally? Who would have been his running mate?
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What if in 2004, Jesse Ventura had ran for president against Bush and Kerry as an Independent? Could he have gotten into the debates? How well would he have done nationally? Who would have been his running mate?
If his opinions are anything like the ones with which he is now associated(ie. anti-war, anti-torture, openly sympathetic to Muslims), he'd likely take votes away from Kerry, thus giving us an even bigger GOP victory.
Mind you, his populist image and tendency toward conspiracy-theories(see his TV show a few years back) might give him some traction with whatever Ron Paul-type movement there was in the Republican Party in 2004.
Overall, though, I think he bleeds support away from the Dems. But I think he'd do worse that Nader in 2000, because traditional left-wing voters just wouldn't be drawn to a guy like him, even if on some level they recognized he agredd with them on a lot of things.
Let's look at the small butterflies that could result:
-Bush wins by a bigger margin, and Ventura draws away enough anti-war votes to flip Kerry's very small OTL victories in Wisconsin and New Hampshire. Minnesota voted Democratic by a surprisingly small margin in OTL, so Ventura's "strength" there flips it in the timeline. See map
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310 to 228.
-Ventura is treated as the main cause of the loss, and instead of "OHIO!" you have "Oh, we'd have won if not for that stupid wrestler".
-Don't know about any down-ticket races. The GOP lucked into a lot of Southern open seats that were theirs for the taking in that cycle, so even if Daschle's loss is butterflied, then they still gain (Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana are obvious pickups).
Do you think that Ventura could have won his home state?
Do you think that Ventura could have won his home state?
If he ran on the Reform ticket or another Third Party, rather than an independent, THAT could have lasting effects.