Jesse Ventura: RFK Jr.’s Nicole Shanahan pick was ‘money over votes’

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. missed an opportunity to send a message to voters when he tapped Silicon Valley billionaire Nicole Shanahan as his running mate, saying dollar signs drove the decision.

Promoting his marijuana businesses during a meet-and-greet in Lanesboro, Minnesota, over the weekend, Mr. Ventura offered a blunt assessment of the Kennedy decision, saying the independent presidential candidate “made the wrong choice.”

“He could have put me up there as an example that they can be beat — they can be beat,” Mr. Ventura said, referring to the Democratic and Republican parties.

“He chose money over votes, I guess, because his running mate is filthy rich, and he has got to get ballot access, which is the gorilla in the room,” said Mr. Ventura, a former professional wrestler who won a shock third-party victory in the 1998 Minnesota governor’s race.

The Biden and Trump campaigns are concerned that the unique brand that Mr. Kennedy brings to the table as a government skeptic and scion of one of the nation’s most famous political families could eat into their chance of winning.

But it was Democrats who were happily circulating the video of the Ventura remarks.

“Jesse Ventura says the quiet part out loud: @NicoleShanahan’s primary qualification was her checkbook,” said Lis Smith, a veteran operative hired by the Democratic National Committee to keep tabs on Mr. Kennedy and other independent candidates. “@RobertKennedyJr. chose her bc his campaign is broke and isn’t adding grassroots donors.”

Mr. Kennedy, the son of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, named Ms. Shanahan as his running mate in late March.

Describing her as a “brilliant scientist” and “a fierce warrior mom,” Mr. Kennedy said she would help him “rally support for our revolution against the ’uniparty’ rule from both ends of the right and left political spectrum.”

A political newcomer, the 38-year-old founded a private foundation focused on criminal justice reform and climate change, and had donated to Democrats in the past.

She divorced Google co-founder Sergey Brin last year and has donated over $10 million to the Kennedy campaign to bolster his efforts to qualify for the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to campaign finance filings.

Mr. Kennedy had flirted with picking Mr. Ventura.

The wrestler-turned-actor pile-drove his way onto the political scene in 1998 when he spent a paltry $300,000 and won the Minnesota governorship under the banner of H. Ross Perot’s Reform Party.

On Saturday, Mr. Ventura said Mr. Kennedy visited him in Tucson, Arizona, over the winter to discuss his presidential campaign.

Mr. Ventura said he is the most “infamous - or famous” independent candidate “out there” and that his reputation as a victorious outsider could have helped Mr. Kennedy.

Despite disagreeing with Mr. Kennedy’s decision, Mr. Ventura did acknowledge the practical side of the choice, saying it costs a tremendous amount of money for candidates outside the two big parties to qualify for state ballots.

Mr. Ventura said independents have to “jump through these tumultuous hoops to get there,” while Democrats and Republicans don’t have to lift a finger.

“Everyone says to me, ’run for president, run for president,’” Mr. Ventura said, sitting at a table with a sign promoting his Retro Bakery marijuana business. “It is not easy because the system won’t let you.”