Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, Vietnam veteran, actor, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the World Wrestling Federation, he served as the 38th governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003. He was elected governor with the Reform Party and is the party's only candidate to win a major government office.
Born in Minneapolis, Ventura was a member of the Navy Special Operations Underwater Demolition/SEAL Teams during the Vietnam War. After leaving the military, he embarked on a professional wrestling career as a heel from 1975 to 1986, taking the ring name "Jesse 'the Body' Ventura." He had a lengthy tenure in the WWF/WWE as a performer and color commentator and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2004. In addition to wrestling, Ventura pursued an acting career, appearing in films such as Predator and The Running Man.
Ventura entered politics in 1991 when he was elected mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, a position he held until 1995. He was the Reform Party candidate in the 1998 Minnesota gubernatorial election, running a low-budget campaign centered on grassroots events and unusual advertising that urged citizens not to "vote for politics as usual". Initially ignored as a novelty candidate, Ventura defeated Democratic state attorney general Skip Humphrey and Republican St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman in a major upset. Amid internal fights for control over the party, Ventura left the Reform Party a year after taking office and served the remainder of his term as a member of the Independence Party of Minnesota. Since holding public office, Ventura has referred to himself as a "statesman" instead of a politician.
As governor, Ventura oversaw reforms of Minnesota's property tax as well as the state's first sales tax rebate. Other initiatives he took included construction of the METRO Blue Line light rail in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area and income tax cuts. Ventura did not run for reelection. After leaving office in 2003, he became a visiting fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has since hosted a number of political television shows on RT America and Ora TV, and written several books. Ventura has been a prominent figure in third-party politics, having repeatedly floated the idea of running for President of the United States as an independent candidate.
In late April 2020, Ventura endorsed the Green Party in the 2020 presidential election and showed interest in running for its nomination. He officially joined the Green Party of Minnesota on May 2. On May 7, he confirmed he would not run. The Green Party of Alaska nominated Ventura, without his involvement, causing the national Green Party to disassociate itself from the Alaska party for abandoning the national party's nominee, Howie Hawkins. In the 2024 presidential election, Ventura endorsed the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris for president and fellow Minnesota governor Tim Walz for vice president.
Early life
Ventura was born James George Janos on July 15, 1951, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of George William Janos and his wife, Bernice Martha (née Lenz). Both his parents were World War II veterans. His mother was the chief nurse anesthetist at North Memorial Hospital and his father worked for the Minneapolis Street Department.
Ventura has an older brother, Jan, who similarly served in the Vietnam War as a UDT. Jan and Jesse graduated as members of BUD/S classes 49 and 58, respectively. Ventura has described himself as Slovak since his father's parents were from Slovakia; his mother was of German descent.April 1, 2008, in Larry King interview with Ventura on NBC Ventura was raised as a Lutheran. Born in South Minneapolis "by the Lake Street bridge", he attended Cooper Elementary School, Sanford Junior High School, and graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1969. Roosevelt High School inducted Ventura into its first hall of fame in September 2014.
Navy Ventura served in the United States Navy from December 1, 1969, to September 10, 1975. He graduated in BUD/S class 58 in December 1970, was part of Underwater Demolition Team 12 while on active duty, and was assigned to SEAL Team One from 1973 through 1975 as a reservist. While on active duty, he served in the Mekong Delta, was attached to an amphibious ready group in the South China Sea, and homeported out of Subic Bay in the Philippines. He was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Navy Expeditionary Medal.
Ventura has frequently referred to his military career in public statements and debates. He was criticized by hunters and conservationists for saying in a 2001 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Until you have hunted men, you haven't hunted yet."
Post-Navy Near the end of his Navy service, Ventura began to spend time with the "South Bay" chapter of the Mongols Motorcycle Club in San Diego. He would ride onto Naval Base Coronado on his Harley-Davidson wearing his Mongol "colors". According to Ventura, he was a "full-patch" member of the club and third-in-command of his chapter, but never had any problems with the authorities. His biker nickname was "Superman".Marks of Mayhem & Murder: When a Few Bad "Mongols" Spoil the Bunch, Should the Go Bunch, Should the Government Seize a Motorcycle Association Association's Registered Trademark? (January 1, 2009) In 1974, Ventura left the bike club to return to the Twin Cities. Shortly after that, the Mongols entered into open warfare with their biker rivals, the Hells Angels. In 2018, Ventura testified as an expert witness on the Mongols' behalf in a federal racketeering trial in Santa Ana, California, defending the club against the government's characterization of the Mongols as a criminal enterprise. He testified that he remained an inactive member of the Mongols and called his time as an active member of the club's San Diego chapter "a stepping stone I needed to make the transition from military life back to civilian life. I owe them for being there for me when the rest of the world wasn't".Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura defends Mongols Motorcycle Club in federal court in Orange County Sean Emery, Orange County Register (November 28, 2018)
Ventura attended North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, during the mid-1970s on the G.I. Bill. He was a bodyguard for The Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead for a time before entering professional wrestling and adopting the wrestling name Jesse Ventura.Jesse Ventura PBS
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1975–1979)
Ventura created the stage name Jesse "The Body" Ventura to go with the persona of a bully-ish beach bodybuilder, picking the name "Ventura" from a map as part of his "bleach blond from California" gimmick. As a wrestler, Ventura performed as a heel. He resurrected Gorgeous George's old motto of "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat!", which he emblazoned on his t-shirts. Much of this flamboyant persona was adapted from "Superstar" Billy Graham, a charismatic and popular performer during the 1970s.John Molinaro, The Top 100 Pro Wrestlers of All Time, (Winding Stair Press: 2002), page 199
In 1975, Ventura made his debut in the Central States territory, before moving to the Pacific Northwest, where he wrestled for promoter Don Owen as Jesse "The Great" Ventura. During his stay in Portland, Oregon, he had notable feuds with Dutch Savage and Jimmy Snuka and won the Pacific Northwest Wrestling title twice (once from each wrestler) and the tag team title five times (twice each with Bull Ramos and "Playboy" Buddy Rose, and once with Jerry Oates).
American Wrestling Association (1979–1984) Ventura later moved to his hometown promotion, the American Wrestling Association in Minnesota. He began teaming with Adrian Adonis as the "East-West Connection" in 1979. In his RF Video shoot in 2012, Ventura revealed that shortly after he arrived in the AWA, Verne Gagne gave him the nickname "the Body". On July 20, 1980, the duo won the AWA World Tag Team Championship by forfeit when Gagne, half of the tag-team champions along with Mad Dog Vachon, failed to show up for a title defense in Denver. The duo held the belts for nearly a year, losing to "The High Flyers" (Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell). Ventura worked for AWA until 1984.
Move to the WWF, retirement, and commentary (1981–1991)
Shortly after losing the belts, the duo moved on to the World Wrestling Federation, where they were managed by Freddie Blassie. Although the duo was unable to capture the World Tag Team Championship, both Adonis and Ventura became singles title contenders, each earning several title shots at WWF Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund.
Ventura continued to wrestle until September 1984 after three back-to-back losses to world champion Hulk Hogan, when blood clots in his lungs effectively ended his in-ring career. He said the clots were a result of his exposure to Agent Orange during his time in Vietnam. Ventura returned to the ring in 1985, forming a tag-team with Randy Savage and Savage's manager (and real-life wife) Miss Elizabeth. After their televised matches, Ventura often taunted and challenged fellow commentator Bruno Sammartino, but nothing ever came of this.
Ventura participated in a six-man tag-team match in December 1985 when he, Roddy Piper, and Bob Orton defeated Hillbilly Jim, Uncle Elmer, and Cousin Luke in a match broadcast on Saturday Night's Main Event IV. The tag match against the Hillbillies came about after Piper and Orton interrupted Elmer's wedding ceremony on the previous edition of the show; Ventura, who later claimed that he was under instruction from fellow commentator and WWF owner Vince McMahon to "bury them", insulted Elmer and his wife during commentary of a real wedding ceremony at the Meadowlands Arena, by proclaiming when they kissed: "It looks like two carp in the middle of the Mississippi River going after the same piece of corn." According to Ventura, the wedding was real, for at that time the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board would not allow the WWF to stage a fake wedding in the state of New Jersey, so Stan Frazier (Uncle Elmer) and his fiancee had agreed to have a real in-ring wedding.
Ventura retired from wrestling in March 1986. His final match was a tag with Roddy Piper, defeating The Orient Express at a house show in Los Angeles on March 25, 1990.
After a failed comeback bid, Ventura hosted his own talk segment on the WWF's All Star Wrestling TV program called "The Body Shop", in much the same heel style as "Piper's Pit", though the setting was a mock gym (when Ventura was unavailable, "The Body Shop" was often hosted by Don Muraco). He began to do color commentary on television for All-Star Wrestling, replacing Angelo Mosca, and later Superstars of Wrestling, initially alongside Vince McMahon and the semi-retired Sammartino, and then just with McMahon after Sammartino's departure from the WWF in early 1988. Ventura most notably co-hosted Saturday Night's Main Event with McMahon, the first six WrestleManias (five of which were alongside Gorilla Monsoon), and most of the WWF's pay-per-views at the time with Monsoon, with the lone exception for Ventura being the first SummerSlam, in which he served as the guest referee during the main event.
Ventura's entertaining commentary style was an extension of his wrestling persona, i.e., a "heel", as he was partial to the villains, something new and different at the time. McMahon, who was always looking for ways to jazz things up, came up with the idea of Ventura doing heel commentary at a time when most commentators, including McMahon himself, openly rooted for the fan favorites.