Robert F Kennedy Jr announces Nicole Shanahan as running mate

Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has announced that Silicon Valley investor and attorney Nicole Shanahan will be his running mate.

Mr Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, made the announcement at an event in Oakland, California on Tuesday. In the last few weeks, the Kennedy campaign has spoken to more than half a dozen possible candidates, with the early favourites including New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former wrestler and Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura.

Ms Shanahan, 38, became the favourite late in the process even as she was connected to his campaign and helped pay for a Super Bowl ad backing Mr Kennedy, The New York Times noted.

The candidate told the paper that he had also been in touch with Scott Brown, a former Republican Massachusetts Senator, as well as anti-vaccine mandate attorney Tricia Lindsay, and former Democratic Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard who has left the party to become an independent. She recently spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference. The campaign also spoke to the host of the TV show Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe.

Mediaite reported that Ms Shanahan was the expected running mate on 16 March.

“I wanted a vice president who shared my passion for wholesome healthy foods, chemical-free, for regenerative agriculture, for good soils,” Mr Kennedy said on Tuesday.

“I found exactly the right person … she has used over the past several years cutting edge technology including AI to calculate the catastrophic health consequences of toxins in our soil, our air, our water and our food,” he added. “Technology has been a lifelong passion for my future vice president … I also wanted a vice president who shares my indignation about the participation of big tech as a partner in the censorship and their surveillance and the information warfare that our government is currently waging against the American people.”

Mr Kennedy was facing deadlines in several states that require that the running mate appear on the ballot as an independent candidate. Ms Shanahan was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin and she has in the past donated to Democrats, including to President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.

She also donated to the Kennedy campaign in May last year, when Mr Kennedy was still running in the Democratic primary. He announced in October that he was leaving that race to run as an independent in the general election.

On Tuesday, Mr Kennedy told a crowd that he “wanted someone who was an athlete who could help me inspire Americans to heal, to get them back in shape, and I’m happy to report that my vice president is an avid surfer who attended school on a softball scholarship”.

“I wanted someone who would honour the traditions of our nation, as a nation of immigrants, who also understand that to be a nation we need to secure borders,” he said.

Ms Shanahan told The Times in February that she had been disappointed when Mr Kennedy left the primary but that she found new energy behind his campaign at the start of this year when she discovered “pockets of silent support all over the place”.

“It was very, very interesting to me to hear how people have been kind of stirred by his message and his willingness to be out there,” she added.

The 70-year-old Mr Kennedy has been pushing anti-vaccine and other conspiracy theories as part of his message bashing the establishment, with the Democratic Party taking legal measures attempting to block Mr Kennedy from getting on the ballot in some states. Democrats are concerned that even as polling shows Mr Kennedy pulling about the same number of supporters from Mr Biden as from former President Donald Trump, the party thinks more choices are more likely to harm Mr Biden than his predecessor.

Ms Shanahan told The Times that she’s not an “anti-vaxxer”, noting that vaccines have been “very helpful” in furthering public health.

But she added, “I do think that the increase of vaccine-related injuries is very alarming, and I do think we need to understand the screening mechanisms,” possibly in reference to baseless theories linking vaccines to autism and other issues.

The campaign told Mediaite earlier this month that Ms Shanahan and Mr Kennedy “align on numerous issues”.

“The campaign is also looking for a candidate who can help finance the ballot access initiative,” the campaign source told the outlet at the time, adding “She might be infusing millions of dollars into the campaign to help fund the ballot initiative, which makes her attractive financially; however, she lacks the qualifications to actually do the job”.

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

He went on to bash both Mr Trump and Mr Biden for their handling of the pandemic.

“Those two men … both worked to close our main street businesses for a year – 3.3 million businesses – with no due process. No scientific citation, no public hearings,” he said.

“As vice president, she’s gonna stand with me against the military-industrial complex,” he said to cheers, also bashing “big [argiculture], Big Pharma, the chemical industry, the processed food industry, the government regulators who are colluding to poison our kids for profit”.

“Our independent run for the presidency is finally going to bring down the Democratic and Republican duopoly,” Mr Kennedy added.

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