Robert Kennedy Jr picks lawyer Nicole Shanahan as running mate

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Robert F Kennedy Jr has chosen Nicole Shanahan as his running mate, picking a political newcomer and one of his largest donors to join an independent ticket that could alter the 2024 election.

Kennedy, 70, said that he chose Shanahan, a 38-year-old California-based attorney, because of her “deep inside knowledge” of how “Big Tech uses AI to manipulate the public”. He also cited her use of AI to calculate the “catastrophic health consequences of toxins in our soil, our air, our water and our food”.

Kennedy hailed Shanahan as “my fellow lawyer, a brilliant scientist, technologist, a fierce warrior mom” and the “daughter of impoverished immigrants” who depended on food stamps as a child in Oakland, California, where he gave the speech.

“We don’t think that either President Trump or President Biden understands the promise or the peril of technology sufficiently to direct its trajectory towards freedom and healing and prosperity,” he said.

Kennedy’s selection of Shanahan comes as he prepares a long-shot bid for the presidency with a campaign that Democrats say could cost President Joe Biden crucial votes in his contest against Donald Trump.

“Our campaign is a spoiler. I agree with that. It’s a spoiler for President Biden and for President Trump,” Kennedy said on Tuesday.

“It’s a spoiler for the war machine. It’s a spoiler for Wall Street and Big Ag, and big Tech, and big Telecom, and big Pharma, and the corporate owned-media and all the corrupt politicians and corporations.”

Kennedy, a scion of the famous Democratic family, is the son of Robert F Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 while running for the party’s presidential nomination, and the nephew of John F Kennedy, assassinated as president in 1963.

Before her turn to politics, Shanahan led a private foundation that invested in programs working on reproductive longevity, climate, and criminal justice issues, and created a Silicon Valley patent analytics company. In 2020, Shanahan gave $50,000 to Biden and the Democratic National Committee.

She was divorced from Google co-founder Sergey Brin last year, and recently gave $4mn to American Values 2024, a pro-Kennedy campaign group, to help pay for an ad that aired during this year’s Super Bowl.

The TV ad re-created the jingle from John F Kennedy’s successful 1960 campaign. RFK Jr’s campaign videos and speeches frequently refer to his uncle and father.

In Michigan and Pennsylvania, two pivotal battleground states, Kennedy received the support of more than 15 per cent of registered voters, while Trump narrowly led Biden overall, in mid-March CNN polls.

Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, has promoted misinformation, particularly on vaccines.

Democrats criticised Kennedy’s running mate decision before the announcement.

Biden’s campaign created ads with Kennedy and Shanahan wearing red Make America Great Again hats, noting that Republican mega donor Tim Mellon had given $20mn to American Values 2024 and $15mn to a pro-Trump campaign group. Kennedy’s campaign had $5mn on hand at the end of February.

After Kennedy launched his campaign last year, four of his siblings said his decision was “perilous for our country” and denounced his candidacy. On St Patrick’s Day, members of the Kennedy clan posed for a photo with Biden at the White House. 

After the photo was released, Kennedy’s campaign manager Amaryllis Fox, who is also his daughter-in-law, posted on X, “Guess you’ve got to destroy democracy to save it? And better destroy American families while you’re at it.”