RFK Jr. Picks Shanahan (and Her Bank Account) As His Running Mate

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

At a crucial moment when Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential candidacy is poised between historic spoiler and asterisk, the populist conspiracy theorist has acquired a running mate with a shallow political résumé but deep pockets. On Tuesday at an event in Oakland, he named wealthy 38-year-old San Francisco Bay Area attorney-entrepreneur and political neophyte Nicole Shanahan as his vice-presidential prospect.

Shanahan is a familiar figure in Bay Area tech circles, probably best known for her four-year marriage to Google co-founder Sergey Brin (which ended in divorce in 2022) and her current position as president and founder of Bia-Echo, a private foundation that invests in “reproductive longevity and equality, criminal-justice reform, and a healthy and livable planet.” Not a lot is known about Shanahan’s issue profile or political leanings, though she has been a Democratic donor in the recent past. In 2020, she made contributions to the presidential campaigns of Pete Buttigieg, Marianne Williamson, and (eventually) Joe Biden. But she’s not enough of a public figure that her selection will do much to define the Kennedy-led ticket. Her involvement came to light after she funded a wildly expensive if not terribly substantive campaign ad that aired during the Super Bowl.

But at his Oakland event, Kennedy described Shanahan as someone whose eyes have recently been opened to the perfidy of government agencies, big tech, the scientific community, Wall Street, the health-care system, and the Democratic Party. He touted her as an athlete, a “warrior mom,” a partner in taking down the “Biden-Trump uni-party,” and a representative of the millennials suffering from the sins of the baby boomers who were responsible for “making America the unhealthiest country in the world.” In a video introducing her after the extremely long event, Shanahan embraced the Kennedy mantra of a country being destroyed by toxic chemicals, electromagnetic “poisoning,” and overmedication. She appears to have drunk the RFK Jr. Kool-Aid to the dregs.

The early timing of Kennedy’s VP reveal was undoubtedly a by-product of his all-important fight for ballot access. Some 26 states require the identification of a running mate before an independent presidential candidate can be fully qualified for the November ballot (in Nevada, his campaign is currently in a dispute with the state over this requirement). Just as important, organizing petitions for ballot access is an expensive chore that Shanahan, as a member of the Kennedy ticket, can help finance without limits on her spending. In her introductory speech, she said she would “spend the next seven months getting Bobby Kennedy on every ballot in America.”

Right now, RFK Jr. has a long way to go to reach his goal of becoming a nationwide candidate, as Politico reports:

His campaign is officially on the ballot in one state so far — Utah. But it says it has collected enough signatures to also qualify in Nevada, Hawaii and New Hampshire. American Values 2024, a pro-Kennedy super PAC, says it has collected enough signatures to get him on the ballot in Michigan, South Carolina, Arizona and Georgia.

An alternative strategy that Kennedy is rumored to be considering is to pursue the presidential nomination in the Libertarian Party, which was on the ballot in all 50 states in 2016 and 2020 and will hold a nominating convention in late May where delegates will largely be free to choose a candidate. If he goes in that direction, he could either offer the Libertarians a package deal with Shanahan or ask her to step aside in favor of someone with more of a “movement” background.

Shanahan won’t be the next vice-president of the United States, but her selection adds to the impression that Kennedy ’24 is an extended improvisational exercise in nonparty politics.