Jesse "The Body" Ventura (born James George Janos) is an American politician, actor, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the WWE, he served as the 38th governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003. He was elected governor as a member of the Reform Party and is the only candidate from that party to win a major statewide election.

Ventura was a member of the U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Team during the Vietnam War. After leaving the military, he began a career as a professional wrestler in a heel persona from 1975 to 1986, taking the ring name "Jesse 'The Body' Ventura." He worked for the WWE for a long time as a performer and commentator and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 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, and held that office until 1995. He was the Reform Party candidate in the 1998 Minnesota gubernatorial election, running a low-budget campaign focused on grassroots events and unusual advertising that urged citizens not to "vote for politics as usual." In a major upset, Ventura defeated both the Democratic and Republican candidates. Amid an internal struggle for control of 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 taking public office, Ventura has called himself a "statesman" rather than a politician.

As governor, Ventura oversaw reforms to Minnesota's property tax as well as the state's first sales tax rebate. Among his other initiatives were the construction of the METRO Blue Line light rail line in the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area and an income tax cut. Ventura did not run for reelection. After leaving office in 2003, he became a visiting fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Since then he has hosted a number of political television programs on RT America and Ora TV and has written several books. Ventura has been a prominent figure in third-party politics, repeatedly floating the idea of running for President of the United States as an independent candidate.