RFK Jr reportedly eyeing Aaron Rodgers and Jesse Ventura as running mates

The New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the former pro wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura are at the top of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s list of potential running mates for his independent presidential campaign, the New York Times reported.

Kennedy told the paper he was speaking to Rodgers – a fellow conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine campaigner – “pretty continuously” and had been in touch with Ventura since being introduced by him at an event in Arizona last month.

Rodgers did not immediately comment. Ventura’s son said his father “does not comment on speculation”.

Democrats fear Kennedy, 70 and the son of the assassinated US attorney general and New York senator Robert F Kennedy, could prove a spoiler in Joe Biden’s rematch with Donald Trump.

Polling gives Kennedy a positive favorability rating with voters, a luxury denied to Biden and Trump. A polling average compiled by the Hill shows Trump at 41.6%, Biden at 38.6% and Kennedy at 11.3%. Democrats have worked to keep Kennedy off ballots in key states.

In Kennedy’s search for a running mate, those who have turned him down include Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky; Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii; and Andrew Yang, a tech entrepreneur who failed in runs for the Democratic presidential nomination and for the mayoralty of New York City.

Paul told Politico: “I’m supportive of [Kennedy’s] ability to have a platform to speak out. I think he’s saying a lot of good things. But I have no plans to get involved in the campaign.”

Gabbard is widely thought to be courting Trump. Politico said she had stopped cooperating with Kennedy’s vetting committee.

Kennedy is an environmental lawyer and campaigner whose turn to conspiracy