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Attorney Nicole Shanahan spent almost $19 million boosting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s long shot presidential campaign. He didn't receive a single vote.
Shanahan seems OK with her investment, which included a $4 million donation to a pro-Kennedy super PAC to cover the bulk of running an ad during the Super Bowl. She publicly raised the possibility that Kennedy could drop out and endorse former President Donald Trump. On Friday, Kennedy announced he was suspending his campaign and supporting Trump.
"I did not put in tens of millions of dollars to be a spoiler candidate," Shanahan said during an recent interview on the "Impact Theory" podcast. I put in tens of millions of dollars to win to, to fix this country."
Her fear, Shanahan said, was potentially drawing too many votes away from Trump.
"There's two options that we're looking at and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump, or we draw somehow more votes from Trump," she said.
The Silicon Valley philanthropist has plenty of cash to spare. Shanahan reportedly received $1 billion in her divorce from former Alphabet co-founder Sergey Brin after her rumored affair with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Both Shanahan and Musk have denied they had an affair.
Shanahan previously joked that Kennedy picked her as his running mate due to her staggering wealth. After abandoning his Democratic primary campaign, Kennedy needed significant funding to set up the organization needed for a credible presidential campaign. He also required significant funding to just make the ballot in every state, a logistical challenge that has made it hard for third-party challengers to be taken seriously.
According to Bloomberg News, Shanahan is among the most prolific self-funding candidates of the 2024 cycle. She still won't top Rep. David Trone of Maryland, who spent over $60 million of his Total Wine fortune only to lose a Democratic Senate primary.
Michael Bloomberg became a meme in the 2020 election when he spent $500 million only to win America Samoa before dropping out of the Democratic presidential primary.
Self-funding is far from a guarantee of victory. Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois has successfully harnessed his family's Hyatt hotel fortune. But reality TV star Mehmet Oz's wealth was an obstacle to his losing US Senate campaign.
