In an explicit nod to young voters and Americans disillusioned with the country’s political state, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday named Nicole Shanahan, a 38-year-old Silicon Valley lawyer, investor and political unknown, as his running mate independent presidential candidacy.
Ms. Shanahan’s election puts youth and an outsider’s idealism on the ticket for Mr. Kennedy, the political scion whose long-term White House campaign threatens to complicate the electoral calculations for both President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump.
But it also brings with it a source of financial support: Ms. Shanahan, formerly married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, has already donated more than $4.5 million to support Mr. Kennedy’s bid. Mr. Kennedy faces a costly attempt to get on the ballot in all 50 states, which he says he will try to do. And he had a tighter timeline for naming a vice presidential running mate because some states require a full list to be on the petition for independent candidates to be placed on the ballot.
“I have found just the right person,” Mr. Kennedy said at a rally in Oakland, California, as he announced his choice. He praised Ms. Shanahan as a “gifted administrator” and “fierce warrior mother” with experience in dealing with artificial intelligence and intellectual property issues, and described her as “the daughter of immigrants who overcame every daunting obstacle and later reached the highest levels.” “of the American dream.”
More than half an hour after Mr. Kennedy announced her as his running mate, Ms. Shanahan took the stage and reiterated many of the themes of his campaign, including skepticism about vaccines, concerns about chronic disease and corruption in America, and calls for a cleaner environment and the elimination of pesticides and genetically modified foods.
“The failure of both parties to do their job and protect their core values has contributed to the decline of this country in my lifetime,” said Ms. Shanahan, who described herself as a lifelong Democrat. “Maybe that’s why I see so many Republicans becoming disillusioned with their party while I’m becoming disillusioned with mine. If you are one of these disillusioned Republicans, I welcome you to join me, a disillusioned Democrat, in this movement to unite and heal America.”
As recently as last month, Ms. Shanahan’s only public connection to Mr. Kennedy was her $4 million donation to fund a Super Bowl ad in which he received his endorsement.
Although trained as a lawyer, her work in recent years has focused on funding research on health and the environment, issues that Mr. Kennedy – an environmental lawyer and vaccine skeptic who promotes conspiracy theories – has made cornerstones of his campaign.
Ms. Shanahan took the stage Tuesday, more than two hours after the rally began, after a long parade of speakers that variously discussed school closures during the pandemic, cancer-causing pesticides in the American food supply, the “corporate capture” of the American government and much more more They called for the censorship of dissident voices in the mainstream news media.
One speaker, Calley Means, the founder of a nutritional supplement and health company, said: “A sober statement of economic fact is that there has not been a more profitable invention in the history of America than a sick child, a child with a chronic illness.” Another The speaker was Metta Sandiford-Artest, the former NBA player formerly known as Ron Artest and Metta World Peace.
Mr. Kennedy spoke alone on stage for a long time after calling Ms. Shanahan by name, saying she would stand up to Wall Street, “nepotism” and Silicon Valley. He later said she would “help me liberate our country” from the “corrupt fusion of state and corporate power that now hovers like a mythical harpy over our nation’s capital.”
Ms. Shanahan appeared to the audience for the first time on Tuesday in a prerecorded video in which she described how her young daughter’s autism diagnosis led her to research chronic illness and environmental toxins. Although she didn’t mention vaccinations, that experience and her interest in the topic seemed to appeal to a notable portion of Mr. Kennedy’s following: parents who are skeptical of childhood vaccinations and critical of a medical establishment that they say is pushing medical interventions on children.
As she took the stage, Ms. Shanahan initially appeared teary-eyed, but as she spoke her voice calmed as she described her difficult childhood in Oakland. Her mother – who was in the audience – had immigrated from China and worked as a janitor and secretary. Her father was often unemployed, she said, and struggled with substance abuse.
In her remarks, Ms. Shanahan described a “reproductive health crisis embedded in a larger chronic disease epidemic,” which she attributed to toxic substances in the environment and “electromagnetic pollution” — a reference that elicited a loud and relieved “yes!” ” from a woman in the back of the cavernous event room – and medication. Chronic illness, she said, would be a major focus of her candidacy and a Kennedy White House.
Ms. Shanahan has emerged as Mr. Kennedy’s preferred vice presidential candidate in recent weeks after NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura topped his short list.
She has contributed a lot to Democrats in the past, including to Mr. Biden’s 2020 campaign. She has supported Mr. Kennedy since last spring, when he was still seeking the Democratic nomination. He became an independent candidate in October, saying the Democratic Party had corruptly blocked his efforts to challenge Mr. Biden in the primary race.
In an interview last month, Ms. Shanahan said she initially supported Mr. Kennedy because she was “enthusiastic” about him and worried about Mr. Biden’s health. She said she spoke to Mr. Kennedy on the phone only once, when he was running as a Democrat.
When Mr. Kennedy left the party she was “incredibly disappointed,” she said, alarmed at how “divisive” she found the move. “I kind of withdrew and suspended all my political involvement.”
It wasn’t until January that she began re-engaging with Mr. Kennedy’s campaign, and when she did, she found, she said, “almost like a secret society of individuals” supporting him. “It was very, very interesting for me to hear how people were touched by his message and his willingness to be out there,” she said.
She made the large donation to finance the Super Bowl ad in support of Mr. Kennedy, which was purchased by an allied super PAC, and told The New York Times that she provided creative guidance. The ad, which repurposed a 1960 ad for Mr. Kennedy’s uncle John F. Kennedy, drew criticism from members of the Kennedy family, who strongly distanced themselves from the campaign.
Democratic allies of Mr. Biden fear that Mr. Kennedy could swing the election in Mr. Trump’s favor, although polls have left an unclear picture of which major party candidate would take more votes away from Mr. Kennedy. A recent Fox News national poll puts his support at around 13 percent, putting about the same share of voters away from his dominant rivals.
Still, the Democratic Party has launched a legal offensive against Mr. Kennedy, aimed at keeping him off the ballot, particularly in crucial states.
Mr. Trump’s allies also appeared wary of Mr. Kennedy on Tuesday.
A super PAC supporting the former president released a statement describing Mr. Kennedy as a “far-left liberal with a left-liberal vice president.”
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung later said: “RFK Jr. is a radical leftist – an environmental nut who loves electric vehicle regulations and wants to eliminate gasoline-powered engines. “He is not an independent person.”
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2024-03-26 23:07:48
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