By Meg Kinnard, Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has chosen Nicole Shanahan, a California attorney and philanthropist with no experience in public office, to join him as his running mate in his independent campaign for president, he revealed on Tuesday.
An unconventional choice, Shanahan, who is 38, brings youth and considerable wealth to Kennedy’s long-shot campaign but is little known outside Silicon Valley.
Shanahan leads the Bia-Echo Foundation, an organization she founded to direct money toward issues like women’s reproductive science, criminal justice reform and environmental causes. She also is a Stanford University fellow and was the founder and chief executive of ClearAccessIP, a patent management firm that was sold in 2020.
Shanahan was married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin from 2018 to 2023, and they have a young daughter. She was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Kennedy made his announcement.
On Tuesday, Shanahan talked about her difficult upbringing in Oakland, the daughter of a mother who immigrated from China and an Irish and German-American father “plagued by substance abuse” who “struggled to keep a job.” Touching on her family’s reliance on government assistance, Shanahan said that, although she had become “very wealthy later on in life,” she felt she could relate to Americans being “just one misfortune away from disaster.”
“The purpose of wealth is to help those in need. That’s what it’s for,” Shanahan said. “And I want to bring that back to politics, too. That is the purpose of privilege.”
Before the announcement, Kennedy’s campaign manager and daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, praised Shanahan’s work on behalf of “honest governance, racial equity, regenerative agriculture and children’s and maternal health.” She said the work “reflects many of our country’s most urgent needs.”
Kennedy, who said in an interview Monday with “The State of California” on KCBS radio that his VP search placed a priority on ”somebody who could represent young people,” said Tuesday that Shanahan — who he said, like him, has “left the Democratic Party” — also shares his concerns about government overreach and his distrust in major political parties’ abilities to make lasting change.
“She’ll tell you that she now understands at the defense agencies work for the military industrial complex, that health agencies work for big pharma and the USDA works for big ag and the processed food cartels,” Kennedy said at his Oakland rally. “The EPA is in cahoots with the polluters, that the scientists can be mercenaries, that government officials sometimes act as sensors, and that the Fed works for Wall Street and allows millionaire bankers to prey upon on Main Street and the American worker.”
Kennedy also mentioned that Shanahan’s heritage played some part in his choosing of her.
“I wanted someone who would respect the customs of our nation, as a nation of people who moved to this country, but who also knows that to be a nation, we must protect our borders,” he said.
Kennedy had previously shown interest in selecting a famous person like NFL quarterback Aaron Rogers, “Dirty Jobs” star Mike Rowe, or former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who was a wrestler and actor.
Based on campaign finance records, Shanahan has consistently given money to Democratic candidates, including giving the maximum allowed amount to Kennedy when he was still seeking the Democratic nomination before switching to an independent run. switching to an independent bid in October.
It was unclear if Shanahan would use her own money for the campaign, but she has already started to financially support Kennedy.
She was a major driving force and the main contributor behind a Super Bowl ad created by a pro-Kennedy super PAC, American Values 2024, where she contributed $4 million. In response to criticism following the ad’s release, the super PAC said its “idea, funding, and execution came primarily” from Shanahan.
The super PAC can accept unlimited funds but is legally prohibited from coordinating with Kennedy’s team.
But as a candidate for vice president, Shanahan can give unrestricted amounts directly to the campaign. This could be a huge help for Kennedy’s costly push to get on the ballot in all 50 states, an effort he has said will cost $15 million and require gathering over 1 million signatures.
Meg Kinnard can be contacted at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.
Jonathan J. Cooper contributed from Oakland.
