Aaron Rodgers being considered by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as running mate for presidential bid

Aaron Rodgers. Photo / AP

We’ve seen a movie star, a reality TV personality and now we could see an American football star make a run for the White House.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is having conversations with vice-presidential candidates as he gets closer to announcing his running mate for his independent presidential bid.

Kennedy told The New York Times that NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura are at the top of his list. Stefanie Spear, a campaign spokeswoman, confirmed the Times report and said there are other names on Kennedy’s short list.

Kennedy, a scion of one of the nation’s most prominent political families, has focused on getting access to the ballot, an expensive and time-consuming process that he has said will require him to collect more than a million signatures in a state-by-state effort.

Many states require independent candidates to name a running mate before they can seek access to the ballot, a factor driving the early push for Kennedy to make a pick. Major party candidates generally don’t pick vice-presidential nominees until closer to their summer conventions.

Kennedy is a lawyer and environmental activist who has become a leading figure in the movement that rejects the scientific consensus around vaccines and is a vocal critic of the public health establishment.

After originally running as a Democrat, he refocused his efforts around an independent campaign last year, spooking loyalists of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, who worry he will pick up supporters who would otherwise back one of the major party candidates.

Rodgers, the longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback who now plays for the New York Jets, shares Kennedy’s distrust of vaccine mandates and, like Kennedy, is a fixture on anti-establishment podcasts. Ventura, a former professional wrestler, shocked observers when he won the race for Minnesota Governor as an independent candidate in 1998.

Rogers was injured in his first NFL game for the Jets and has not taken the field since but has made a number of appearances in American media in which he has made his political views known.

- with AP