Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on March 26 named California attorney Nicole Shanahan as his running mate in his third-party run for the White House, the Associated Press reported.
Formerly married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, the 38-year-old Shanahan is the founder of Bia-Echo Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supports groups that promote criminal justice reform, climate change issues, and abortion rights.
Kennedy announced his vice presidential pick at a campaign event in Oakland, California, where Shanahan, the daughter of immigrants, was raised.
The independent candidate said that like him, his running mate abandoned the Democratic Party because the party changed while her values remained the same.
Kennedy acknowledged that his campaign faced an uphill battle in 2024 and called on the American people to “take a risk” by voting for him over President Biden or Republican Donald Trump.
He said the biggest obstacle his campaign faced was the assumption that he had no chance of winning. He said if his campaign could convince voters not to “vote from fear,” then he and Nicole Shanahan would be in the White House.
Donald Trump greeted the news by declaring the choice of Shanahan “great for MAGA.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump described Nicole Shanahan as even more liberal than Kennedy, whom he called “a Radical Left Democrat.”
Trump also noted that the Democrats would try to “make it very hard” for Kennedy to get on the ballot and suggested that both Kennedy and Shanahan could even get “indicted any day now.”
There is no question that Kennedy’s third-party run is causing panic in the Biden camp, especially with many polls showing him drawing 10-15 percent support in a possible 3-way race.
According to Axios, both the Biden campaign and the DNC have assigned dedicated teams to focus on Kennedy in the election. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign, believing that Kennedy would draw more voters away from Biden than Trump, has maintained a watch-and-wait approach.
