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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Chooses Bay Area Tech Entrepreneur as Running Mate

Annelise Finney
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. taps Nicole Shanahan, a wealthy tech lawyer and investor, as his vice presidential nominee on Tuesday in Oakland. Shanahan has limited political experience but has donated for several years to Democratic candidates, including President Joe Biden in 2020.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and vice presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed Nicole Shanahan, a wealthy tech lawyer and investor, as his pick for vice president on Tuesday in Oakland.

The formal announcement was held at the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts by Lake Merritt. Classic rock played as the crowd filtered in, and scenes of the American Southwest were shown on two large screens. The predominantly white crowd waved American flags in the half-filled auditorium.

“I’m so proud to introduce to you the next vice president of the United States — my fellow lawyer, a brilliant scientist, technologist, a fierce warrior mom, Nicole Shanahan,” Kennedy said.

Shanahan claimed the Republican and Democratic parties are failing to support individual freedom.

“In fact, the very failure of both parties to do their job to protect their founding values has contributed to the decline of this country in my lifetime,” she told the crowd. “Maybe that’s why I see so many Republicans disillusioned with their party as I become disillusioned with mine.

“If you are one of those disillusioned Republicans, I welcome you to join me, a disillusioned Democrat, in this movement to unify and heal America.”

Shanahan, 38, is also an entrepreneur and philanthropist. She founded ClearAccessIP, which uses AI to manage patent portfolios and sold the company in 2020. She is also president of Bia-Echo, a foundation that invests in reproductive health and criminal justice reform, according to the company’s website. She was formerly married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The couple, who have a daughter, divorced in 2022.

Shanahan, the daughter of a Chinese immigrant, was raised on welfare in a single-parent household in Oakland. She graduated from Santa Clara Law School in 2014.

“As you probably know, I became very wealthy later on in life,” she said. “But my roots in Oakland taught me many things I have never forgotten — that the purpose of wealth is to help those in need. And I want to bring that back to politics, too.”

Shanahan has never held public office, though she has donated for several years to Democratic candidates, including President Joe Biden in 2020. In February, she donated $4 million to a super PAC to help pay for a Super Bowl ad backing Kennedy’s campaign, according to The New York Times.

Kennedy apologized after the ad, which was similar to a commercial supporting John F. Kennedy, his uncle, during his presidential campaign in 1960, sparked outrage from family members. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer who is the son of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, has linked himself to his family’s political legacy, but his promotion of conspiracy theories and vaccine misinformation has been criticized by his cousins, among others.

Kennedy has made numerous false or misleading claims about vaccines in speeches and media interviews, including referring to the COVID-19 vaccine as “the deadliest vaccine ever made.” He’s claimed that antidepressants are to blame for school shootings and that chemicals in water supplies could make children transgender. In 2023, he told the podcaster Joe Rogan that Wi-Fi causes cancer and “leaky brain,” according to NPR’s roundup of the conspiracy theories promoted by Kennedy.

“I do wonder about vaccine injuries,” Shanahan said in The New York Times story about the Super Bowl ad. “I think there needs to be a space to have these conversations.”

Many of the roughly 200 attendees were also skeptical of vaccines, like Aaron Tran, an Oakland resident who works in the cannabis industry. He said anti-vax theories haven’t been disproven in studies.

Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. introduced Nicole Shanahan, a tech lawyer and investor, to a crowd of a few hundred at Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (Juliana Yamada/KQED)

“If the studies are there, [Kennedy] wants to make it public so we can all see it,” said Tran, 42. “And if the studies are not done, then to get them done. Then take action on whatever that evidence provides.”

Another Oakland resident, Karen Motlow, hopes Kennedy can win.

“Because if he doesn’t, we’re toast,” Motlow, 71, said. “We’re already toast as far as humanity goes because so many people have taken a synthetic genetic vaccine that has an HIV plasmid in it.”

A truck with an anti-Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ad paid for by the Democratic National Committee outside a campaign rally at the Kaiser Center for the Arts in Oakland on March 26, 2024. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)

There is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines contain HIV or a cancer-causing “monkey virus,” according to the Associated Press. PolitiFact and FactCheck.org, among other organizations, have debunked Kennedy’s controversial statements.

Sonia and Paul, a couple from Fresno who declined to give their last name to KQED, said Kennedy’s anti-vaccine theories were problematic.

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“​​I don’t agree with that,” Sonia said. “But that’s why we’re here, to find out more, right?”

A parade of speakers positioned Kennedy as an underdog, including Angela Stanton-King, a conspiracy theorist who was once an ally of former President Donald Trump, former NBA player Metta Sandiford-Artest and Kennedy’s wife, the actress Cheryl Hines.

Kennedy has significant hurdles to becoming a viable alternative for voters. Independent candidates must submit nomination signatures in each of the 50 states to be added to ballots. In California, Kennedy needs about 220,000 signatures to qualify for the November election.

He has officially qualified for the ballot in Utah, and his campaign claims he has collected enough signatures to qualify in Nevada, New Hampshire and Hawaii. It will be expensive to collect the millions of signatures required to get on the ballot in all 50 states, and in a YouTube video, Kennedy said it will cost $15 million. Shanahan’s personal wealth and Silicon Valley connections will ease the financial burden.

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