Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is having conversations with vice presidential candidates as he gets closer to announcing his running mate for an independent presidential bid.Kennedy told The New York Times that quarterback and former Minnesota Gov. Je se Ventura are at the top of his list. Stefanie Spear, a campaign spokesperson, confirmed the Times report and said there are other names on Kennedy's short list.Aaron Rodgers eyed as running mate for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy's campaign said Wednesday that he will announce his running mate on March 26 at a rally in Oakland, California. The campaign did not elaborate further on Kennedy's decision proce s.ADVERTISEMENT Kennedy, a scion of one of the nation's most prominent political families, has focused on getting acce s to the ballot, an expensive and time-consuming proce s 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 acce s Jaxson Hayes Jersey 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 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'll pick up supporters who would otherwise back one of the major party candidates.Kennedy's father was attorney general for the candidate's uncle, President John F. Kennedy.Candidates from outside the Republican and Democratic parties rarely make a splash, if they can make the ballot to begin with. But third-party candidates dont usually carry a famous last name like Kennedys, or his existing network of supportersRodgers, the longtime quarterback who now plays for the , shares Kennedy's distrust of vaccine mandates and, like Kennedy, is a fixture on anti-establishment podcasts. Ventura, a former profe sional wrestler, shocked observers when he won the race for Minnesota governor as an independent candidate in 1998.Reporting by The A sociated Pre s. Lonzo Ball Jersey