Thursday, January 15, 2026
PMT: Jesse Ventura re-emerges....
Things have been pretty weird in Minnesota lately. And, of course, that summoned former governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura, who is considering another run. If you aren't familiar with the backstory:
-- From 1969-1975, he was in the US Navy, serving as an underwater demolition expert.
-- In the late '70's he served as a bodyguard for The Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead.
-- In 1979, he began wrestling in the Minnesota-based American Wrestling Association.
-- From 1981 to 1987 or so, he wrestled in the WWF (later the WWE)
-- After that, he was a commentator on wrestling shows
-- He also turned to acting, and was the co-star (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the original Predator film.
-- In 1990, he ran to be the Mayor of Brooklyn Park, a Minneapolis suburb. He won, and served until 1995.
-- Then, in 1998, he beat the Republican (Norm Coleman) and Democrat (Skip Humphrey) as the Reform Party candidate for governor. He chose not to run for a second term.
-- Most recently, he successfully pushed for the legalization of recreational marijuana in Minnesota.
Ventura went to Roosevelt High in Minneapolis, which has been the scene of at least one high-profile ICE take-down. He is (like most people here) upset about what is going on, and told columnist Leonard Greene this anecdote:
“I was in the Philippines the day Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law and went under dictatorship. We went from nobody to a guy with a machine gun on every corner. That’s what happens in a dictatorship. In comes the military. That’s what’s happening here, and people better wake up to it.”
Given the political actors in power in DC, we shouldn't be surprised that wrestlers can make more sense than they do.
