The Dude Vote: How Ventura begot Trump

What follows is excerpted from TrumpMania: Vince McMahon, WWE and the Making of America's 45th President: 2020 Election Special Edition

Jesse Ventura served as mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota from January 11, 1991 to January 13, 1995. Brooklyn Park hero had a population of 55,000, making it the sixth most populous city in Minnesota. When he suggested council members to  “ fight it out” and pretended to hit a city council member on the head, it wasn’t taken well, regardless of his pro wrestling past.   

Ventura ran successfully for Mayor on the slogan, "If you’ve had enough and you’re mad enough." There were no debates and the Associated Press described it in 1990 as a contest "mostly waged by yard signs." Ventura’s signs kept disappearing. He would sit by the signs on weekends to make sure that they did not disappear. Ventura said he did not spend more than two or three thousand dollars on the campaign. He and his supporters followed a grass roots strategy of knocking on doors. His campaign volunteer numbers grew to such a degree that Ventura for Mayor literature was dropped off at every home in the area in one day, Ventura claimed. Krautkramer, who had served in office for eighteen years, acknowledged Ventura was a threat: "He’s been doing this for a year and a half and I don’t have the ability to come up with the one-liners that he does." Ventura won in all twenty-one of the city’s precincts with a total vote of 12,728 to 7,390. Needless to Say,  VENTURA  looks better on a sign than  KRAUTKRAMER . Ventura was in a jubilant mood, "We broke open the champagne about midnight and we were up until about 4 a.m." The job was part-time and paid $900 a month.

In the years between Trump’s highest profile WrestleMania appearances, he would have several notable interactions with his WrestleMania IV acquaintance, Jesse "The Body" Ventura. Trump appeared at a campaign event supporting Ventura’s run for Governor of Minnesota. Ventura’s eventual win in 1998 was described as tens of thousands of voters tuning in late, supporting a third-party candidate and rejecting traditional choices. Young people were encouraged to make their voices heard.  

Ventura, in his book,  I  Ain’t Got Time to Bleed , described the dim outlook on his prospects when he decided to run: "Everybody thought it was a great joke: the big ex-pro wrestler running for governor- what’s he  gonna  do, body-slam legislators when they get out of line?" The press barely noticed, according to Ventura.   

Ventura  declared  his candidacy on January 26, 1998, by announcing at the Minnesota State Capitol steps, "If I fail . . . then the American dream is dead." There was no opposition to an endorsement from the Reform Party and he officially accepted at their convention. While candidates spoke of various measures to control the budget, Ventura broke it down simply, "Cut taxes. Cut taxes. Cut taxes." In meeting with veterans in a legion hall, Ventura confidently shared that he was "going to fool everybody in this race like I fooled them on the one in Brooklyn Park ... Look, 45 percent of Minnesotans don’t vote- and we’re in a good state. I can get 20 percent of them to vote this one time and watch your vote count."   

Ventura returned to the Minnesota State fair in 1998, now with an official purpose. His booth was swamped with swarms of people that wanted to get a "Ventura for Governor" bumper sticker and a ‘ Retaliate  in  ‘98" t-shirt. The t-shirts were especially popular during the campaign, raising $150,000 of the $300,000 total raised in the campaign. Jacob Lentz, author of  Electing Jesse Ventura , described Ventura as "radiating pure populism" when making statements like "I don’t believe in politics, I believe in results." Most fair goers were more interested in meeting Ventura for entertainment value. Campaign representatives were passing out "Jesse Dollars," with Ventura’s face replacing Washington’s. The fair also gave Ventura the opportunity to rebrand himself with reporters: "I make my living with my mind now, not my body so I’m Jesse  ‘The Mind.'" 

Part of Ventura’s strategy was to appeal to the non-voter. If 50 percent of the population did not vote in non-presidential elections, that was a potential supporter he could attract, who had no compulsion to vote democrat or republican.    

Even with an advertising person helping to steer the ship, the campaign had cash troubles and did not have the funding for tv commercials. The campaign’s first radio ad used the music from the movie, Shaft: "While the other guys were cashing checks, he was in the navy getting dirty and wet." Once able to run an advertisement, the ads aired on programs that would appeal to younger people, like The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, a Ventura action figure took center stage to fight Evil Special Interest Man. Ventura’s campaign qualified for $360,000 in public money. This allowed it to run advertisements during the last week of the campaign.   

The statewide debates were the time when Ventura’s candidacy heated up and the agreement among observers was that Ventura had won all six. Ventura often was vague but had phrases that would resonate such as "With freedom comes responsibility, but I prefer freedom and I think people will show the responsibility." In addition to his  well-honed  verbal jousting skills, Ventura felt his physical prowess and towering height over his less athletic opponents served a benefit.  

The Pioneer Press bought what Ventura was selling. On October 26, it featured a headline, "Ventura’s straight talk merits respect." On October 28, the paper wrote that Ventura is incapable of deception. For a third-party candidate, Ventura benefitted overall from a good deal of press. Ventura received about half of the mentions in the major papers, The Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press, as compared to his rivals. In a content analysis, Jacob Lentz found a positive depiction of Ventura personally and as a candidate. He benefited from little scrutiny and limited investigation of claims by the press.   

On Election Night, Knight Ridder newspapers described supporters behind Ventura as white males under 30 years old, wearing t-shirts with wrestling logos like NWO (New World Order). Outside of Ventura’s election night location, he was asked several times to request his supporters calm down as spontaneous moshing kept breaking out. His campaign people kept requesting his help: "Jesse, the kids are getting wild again. You  gotta  go out there and talk to ‘ em ,  calm   ‘ em  down." Ventura had "tapped into the vast demographics of pro wrestling" and more than 50 percent of Ventura’s voters were males under 44, many of them first time voters. Chuck Raasch, in the Daily Record of New Jersey, warned that what happened in Minnesota could happen anywhere. Stephen M. Layden (Lake George, NY) in a letter to the editor in  the Post  Star wrote, "I have seen the future of politics . . .   its  name is pro wrestling." Often getting little mention in stories noting Ventura’s win was his previous experience in politics.   

37 percent of voters selected Ventura in a three-way win. One benefit to Ventura was same day registrants. Of those 332,540 who registered the day of the election, 225,184 voted for Ventura. Overall Ventura received 48.5 percent among those 18-29 years  old  but he also received strong support among those 30–44 years old at 42.9 percent.   

Although Ventura was likely wealthy at the time, he appealed to groups on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale by portraying himself as an outsider and hero to blue collar workers; his  “ dude ” persona arguably contributed to his success. Ventura knew how to appeal to this group, including his status as a union member (albeit the Actors Guild union). He could communicate in an informal, straight talk manner. As shared in  Electing Jesse Ventura, if one utilizes the 1998 Voter News Service Poll and defines "dudes" as men with a high school education or less, and less than $50,000 a year in earnings. Ventura received 48.2 percent support, compared to men earning $75,000 a year and had at least a college degree, where Ventura only received 30.3 percent.   

Jacob Lentz warns that because someone does not understand something (like professional wrestling), it does not make it less legitimate. To dismiss a candidate immediately because of a less respectable biography could be foolish. Many find pro wrestling to be a poor representation of American culture but for others, and great numbers of them at that time, it was a legitimate form of culture and how people want to spend their free time.   

Lavie Margolin is the author of TrumpMania: Vince McMahon, WWE and the Making of America's 45th President: 2020 Election Special Edition