I know that the people around George H. W. Bush considered offering the VP slot to Clint Eastwood, but did John Wayne ever get considered for a political candidacy?
To be honest, I fear his views were so strongly right-wing that he would be ruled off a national ticket.
Maybe Mayor, maybe Governor, but not President or Vice President.
Not as far as I know, but based on the time frame you’d have to be looking at either Ike or Nixon. Ike didn’t need star power, he was the war hero. And I’m not sure Nixon would’ve wanted that strong a personality as veep.
I don’t think anyone thought that way then. It would have been laughable.
On the real side he didn’t have a heroic back story to his life. He wasn’t the character in the movies at all.
Today he probably would be a “serious” candidate for President.
Today he wouldn’t be considered right-wing in present day America.
What were his views?
Here are a few nuggets from Wayne’s infamous 1971 Playboy interview. Frankly, Wayne never came off as particularly intelligent, and he certainly didn’t have the knack for personal charm or pragmatic compromise as Reagan. Groucho Marx would be a more credible candidate for public office, except he’d never want to belong to a government who would have someone like him as a member.
Stranger
Wayne was also married to a Panamanian woman, which would’ve been a turnoff for many GOP voters, and strongly supported Jimmy Carter in returning jurisdiction over the Panama Canal to the Panamanian govt., which was anathema to Republicans in the late Seventies and early Eighties.