Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that he had selected wealthy Bay Area attorney and philanthropist Nicole Shanahan as his vice-presidential running mate.
Shanahan, the 38-year-old daughter of a Chinese immigrant who grew up in Oakland, California, and was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is a major Kennedy backer. She gave $4 million to a pro-Kennedy super PAC, American Values 2024, to air the retro-style Super Bowl ad that conjured the 1960 campaign of Kennedy’s uncle, former President John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy, an environmental attorney, anti-vaccine advocate and conspiracy theorist, considered a variety of unconventional candidates to serve as his running mate. Among the names in the mix: the rapper “Killer Mike” Render, NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and TV host Mike Rowe, Kennedy told the San Francisco-based radio station KCBS on Monday morning.
Kennedy told “The State of California” host Doug Sovern that Shanahan stood out because of her youth, athleticism and commitment to “unraveling the war machine and the corporate capture” of the federal government.
Shanahan founded ClearAccessIP, a company that aims to help entrepreneurs develop and manage patents, and sold it for an undisclosed amount in 2020.
In 2019, Shanahan launched the Bia-Echo Foundation to distribute $100 million that she is donating to programs that fight climate change, reform the criminal justice system and help women become pregnant later in life.
Shanahan identifies with Kennedy’s focus on the links between environmental pollution and public health problems, she told The New York Times in a February interview following the Super Bowl ad.
“I do think we have an environmental health crisis in this country,” she said. “I do believe Americans deserve clean water. And we can’t achieve that in the current climate of politics.”
The attorney also shares some of Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccines.
“I do wonder about vaccine injuries,” she told the Times. “I think there needs to be a space to have these conversations.”
Through his nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy has spread fears about vaccine side effects that a broad array of experts say are unfounded. Children’s Health Defense has fueled doubts about the health risks of vaccinations for childhood diseases like measles, though these shots have been safely used for decades.
Kennedy has specifically supported the debunked theory that vaccines are linked to autism. In a speech about that supposed link in 2015, he compared the United States’ vaccination regime to “a Holocaust,” though he later apologized.
Prior to this election cycle, Shanahan was a major donor to Democratic presidential candidates, including President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.
She has also given to a number of Democratic congressional candidates, such as Rep. Ro Khanna, who represents key parts of Silicon Valley. Shanahan is still supporting Khanna, giving him the maximum allowable amount this cycle.
This story is developing. Please return for updates.