Shanahan is a California-based lawyer, frequent Democratic donor, and financial backer of Kennedy’s much-discussed Super Bowl ad.
Earlier this month, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign announced that the independent candidate would announce his vice-presidential pick on March 26 in Oakland, California. Initial reports suggested that former wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura and New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers were on Kennedy’s shortlist. But a new name has emerged and quickly shot up to the top of that list: Nicole Shanahan.
Mediaite reported on Saturday that Kennedy is expected to select the Bay Area lawyer and Democratic donor as his running mate, and on Monday the New York Times reported that Shanahan was was “among the top picks” for his campaign. In a lengthy post on X, campaign director Amaryllis Fox confirmed that Kennedy had made his pick, but did not provide more specifics.
As the political world awaits Kennedy’s announcement, here’s what we know about a potential new name in the race for the White House.
What’s her background?
Shanahan was raised in Oakland, the child of Chinese immigrant parents. According to her LinkedIn page, she graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, where she majored in Asian Studies and minored in Economics and Mandarin. She later received a law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law.
She founded and served as CEO of the Palo Alto–based firm ClearAccessIP, a patent analytics company. In 2020, the firm was acquired by IPwe. Currently, she is the president and founder of the Bia-Echo Foundation, a private foundation that invests in “reproductive longevity and equality, criminal justice reform and a healthy and livable planet,” per its website.
In 2018, Shanahan married Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, and had a daughter. In 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that Brin had filed for divorce after Shanahan allegedly had a brief affair with tech billionaire Elon Musk. Both Musk and Shanahan deny the allegation. Brin and Shanahan’s divorce was finalized last year.
In February, the New York Times reported that Shanahan was behind Kennedy’s much-discussed Super Bowl ad, which was a play on a famous spot from his uncle’s 1960 campaign. In an interview, Shanahan confirmed that she gave $4 million to American Values 2024, the super-PAC that ran the ad, and was involved in its production. The 30-second clip reportedly cost $7 million in total.
Learn more: https://t.co/4YjLwreZN9 pic.twitter.com/JLEPW7H901
— American Values 2024 (@AmValues2024) February 12, 2024
There’s speculation that Shanahan, as a wealthy entrepreneur, could help Kennedy with the expensive task of accessing the ballot in all 50 states. The campaign previously estimated that it could cost $15 million to do so.
What are her politics?
Shanahan has donated to many Democratic candidates in the past, calling herself a “lifelong Democrat” in an interview with ABC News. In 2019, Vox reported that she was listed as a co-host for a Pete Buttigieg fundraiser in Palo Alto alongside other prominent Silicon Valley figures including Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Michelle Sandberg, the sister of then–Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. Shanahan also previously donated the $2,800 individual maximum to both Buttigieg and Marianne Williamson’s campaigns during the 2020 election, as well as $25,000 to the Biden Victory Fund PAC, per Forbes.
In an interview with the Times, Shanahan seemed to echo her potential running mate, Kennedy, saying that she is “not an anti-vaxxer,” but saying she does wonder about “vaccine injuries.”
“I think there needs to be a space to have these conversations,” she said.
Are there any other signs that Shanahan might be the one?
The location of the campaign’s announcement could possibly be a hint. The March 26 event is scheduled to be held in Oakland, a city that Shanahan has deep ties to.
And in its article over the weekend, Mediaite found that the website domain www.kennedyshanahan.com had been registered on March 13 and that a donation page appeared live. The domain was apparently registered to Link Lipsitz, a Kennedy campaign adviser.
Rolling Stone reported that a similar domain, kennedyrodgers.com, had been registered on March 4, indicating the Kennedy campaign’s interest — at least initially — in Aaron Rodgers as a potential running mate. After Rolling Stone contacted Doug Stafford, a Republican strategist who recently joined the Kennedy team and was connected to the registration, kennedyrodgers.com was taken offline.
