WI: Jesse Ventura didn't run for Governor of Minnesota
- Thread starter darklordoftech
- Start date
Ventura pushed Trump to run in 2000 and provided an early model for Trump's later political career: use your celebrity clout to run as an outsider who tells it "like it is." I'm not saying that the Trump presidency is Ventura's fault, but he was pretty important in the development of Trump the politician. If Ventura doesn't run, then it's not unreasonable to think that this could butterfly away the Trump Presidency. After all, 2016 was so close that anything - a different campaign strategy, different message, different action taken by Trump - could've changed the result.
I honestly couldn't say which of the two mainstream party nominees would have won, but as I understand it both were pretty forgettable. Two things that come to mind as effects of this are 1. Ventura doesn't gain the legitimacy of public office that he would later parlay into a career in conspiracy theory type stuff and 2. The model of celebrities running for office isn't tarnished by his one, not very successful, term as governor. As Amadeus said above, this could affect Trump's outlook on politics, but it might also lead to the door being open for another outsider who is more competent and dedicated entering public office.
Skip Humphrey is the son of Hubert Humphrey. He was Attorney General of Minnesota at the time, where he got Big Tobacco to release documents confirming that they knew the dangers of smoking before the Surgeon General's Report of 1964. He was also the chairperson of the Minnesota wing of Bill Clinton's 1996 campaign. He said, "If you think that being too liberal means raising the minimum wage, advocating health care for everyone, protecting the environment, taking on the tobacco industry, enacting campaign finance reform, and putting more cops on the streets, then guess what? That's what Minnesotans want."
Was it tarnished? Schwarzenegger was elected governor the year Ventura left office, and of course Minnesota would go on to elect Al Franken as one of their senators. And it's not as if Ventura was even the first celebrity to get into politics.
Maybe not in a huge way, but he didn't leave much of a positive impression on the state either as a result of his policies, or personally. From what I know he strongly disliked the media's treatment of him and his family. As I said a more dedicated celeberity turned politician could have stomached that, or fought back in a more constructive way.
An interesting thing to note is that Ventura was Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota from 1991-1995. He actually had some political experience before becoming Minnesota Governor.
That sounds like the opposite— his term as governor soured him on frontline politics (and is probably why, despite mulling presidential bids in like every cycle since, he's never taken the plunge). I don't think he had any appreciable difference in how voters see celebrity candidates.
IIRC, before Ventura jumped into the race, Humphrey and Coleman were pretty close, either tied or with Humphrey having a slight lead. Between that, and the Republicans being the incumbent party, I think it's a fair assumption that Ventura took more from Humphrey than Coleman; and that in a straight two-way race, Humphrey would win by a decent margin. A Governor Skip Humphrey has some interesting butterflies to consider. The obvious one is his own ambitions: does a two-term Humphrey mount a presidential bid in 2004? But also, if he's re-elected in 2002, his presence on the ballot might push the concurrent Senate election in the Democrats' favour, with Walter Mondale returning to the Senate. (It also completely upsets Tim Pawlenty and Norm Coleman's careers.)
Last edited:
FillyofDelphi
Banned
We elected Fraken by the skin of his teeth in a pretty good year for the DFL. It was actually the first campaign I did grunt volunteer work on and, at least from personal experience, his comedian status did more harm than good. Than again, I did my work in the 6th, so we aren't exactly the bluest part of the state...
As I understand it he left office with very low approval ratings. Even if he'd wanted to run for reelection I think he knew he couldn't win. Maybe he didn't bring down the notion of celebrities as political candidates, but he certainly wasn't an argument for it.
I wonder what Skip thinks of opioids, global warming, high fructose corn syrup, guns, Goldman Sachs, etc. Skip would also have been useful for pushing progressive ideas in politics.