Robert F. Kennedy Jr. names Nicole Shanahan as his vice president

It will be the first time that the lawyer and businesswoman has run for elected office. She donated $4 million to the independent candidate's super PAC in February.

Published by

Williams Perdomo

26 de marzo, 2024

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that Nicole Shanahan will be his running mate in the race for the White House. The announcement was made by the independent candidate Tuesday during an event in Oakland, Calif. This will be Shanahan's first time running for elected office.

Shanahan "previously was involved in the production of an attention-grabbing Super Bowl ad supporting Kennedy in February ... Shanahan told The New York Times that she helped make the ad and gave $4 million to the super PAC American Values 2024 last month to air it," reported NBC.

Raised in Oakland, Shanahan is an attorney and tech entrepreneur. The Bia-Echo organization, owned by Shanahan, reports on its website that its goal is "to create a multiplying effect across new frontiers in reproductive longevity & equality, criminal justice reform and a healthy & livable planet":

We believe that the creative spirit and life force behind our human capacity will stimulate long-lasting and sustainable progress within our key areas of investment. We invest in changemakers at the forefront of innovation who are tackling some of the world’s greatest challenges within our core areas of investment: Reproductive Longevity & Equality, Criminal Justice Reform and a Healthy and Livable Planet.

As for her education, Shanahan attended the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., where she studied Asian Studies, Economics and Mandarin. She graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law in Silicon Valley in 2014. "Around the time of her graduation she started ClearAccess IP, a company that used artificial intelligence to streamline the patent process," explained Politico.

But what Shanahan, 38, has is an abundance of wealth (which will come in handy as Kennedy mounts an expensive cross-country ballot access effort) and a powerful rags-to-riches story that many politicians would gleefully milk in advertisements.

In addition, it was learned that Shanahan married Google co-founder Sergey Brin in 2018 and they divorced in 2022. There was also speculation, per a Wall Street Journal report, about an alleged relationship between her and entrepreneur Elon Musk that was the reason for their divorce. Shanahan denied this claim. However, the lawyer told People magazine that she was not happy in her marriage. "When I was living as a wife of a billionaire, I was not the best version of myself," Shanahan noted.

"The WSJ’s narrative that an affair with Elon Musk led to the end of my marriage was about as accurate as claiming that the body heat of polar bears is responsible for the melting of the Arctic ice caps. It felt senseless and cruel," Shanahan wrote in an opinion piece published in People magazine.