OAKLAND — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. brought his longshot bid for the White House to the Bay Area on Tuesday and named Oakland native and Silicon Valley lawyer Nicole Shanahan as his running mate for his independent presidential campaign.
Speculation had swirled in recent weeks about who’d get the nod to join Kennedy, the son of the late New York U.S. senator and attorney general who was assassinated in Los Angeles while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968.
Many political oddsmakers believed it would be Shanahan, a lawyer and mega-donor with Silicon Valley connections as the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The 38-year-old has no political experience but helped fund an RFK Jr. Super Bowl ad that riffed on a famous 1960 ad for his uncle John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign. But Shanahan may best be known for a relationship with Elon Musk that led to her divorce from Brin and severed his friendship with the Tesla founder.
Kennedy praised Shanahan as an ally for voters who are disappointed with today’s political leaders and welcomed her to a campaign that polls show could have a major impact on stripping crucial votes from President Biden and former President Trump. A Real Clear Politics average of recent polls in five battleground states showed Kennedy polling with 12.3% of the vote behind Trump’s 40.7% and Biden’s 35.3%.
“Like many of us, Nicole assumed the U.S. government was working for the people, that the Democratic Party was on the side of the middle class and the working poor,” Kennedy said. “I too used to believe those things. Do you remember those days?”
Kennedy used the build up to his vice presidential pick to spark attention around a campaign largely built around his opposition to vaccines. Top contenders included NFL star quarterback Aaron Rodgers, known to share Kennedy’s vaccine criticisms, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang.
Kennedy campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear said the vice presidential announcement allows Kennedy to begin collecting signatures in 20 states that require a vice presidential candidate to qualify the ticket for the ballot. They have been gathering signatures in 16 states.
Inside the Kaiser Center auditorium, a pair of musicians with a Fender guitar and electric keyboard played rock music while vintage black-and-white photos of Robert F. Kennedy and color nature shots flashed on two large screens flanking the stage. Kennedy’s wife, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Cheryl Hines, introduced him to the crowd.
“Our campaign is a spoiler, I agree, a spoiler for President Biden and President Trump,” Kennedy said, arguing that voters are hungry for an alternative to choosing between “two tired heads of the uni-party.”
“Nicole and I are going to give those millions another choice,” Kennedy told the crowd. “Now I have a governing partner who will fight for you and your family”
Shanahan talked about growing up in Oakland, the daughter of a Chinese immigrant mother and an Irish-German father who struggled with substance abuse and joblessness, in a family that often was forced to rely on public assistance.
“This city will always have a special place in my heart,” Shanahan said. Though she’d been a longtime Democrat and party donor, she said she became disillusioned with a party she said has “lost its way” and become beholden to corporate interests. A friend persuaded her to listen to Kennedy, and she said he won her over. As the mother of a child with autism, she shares his concerns that exposure to poorly regulated drugs, chemicals, electro-magnetic fields are contributing to a chronic illness epidemic.
“I saw a person with intelligence and compassion and reason,” Shanahan said. “For the first time, I felt hope.”
“It’s time, as Bobby Kennedy says, to focus on our unifying values,” Shanahan said.
Ann Ratsep, 56, of San Francisco, said she trusted Kennedy to pick a good running mate.
“I’m excited about her,” said Ratsep, who voted for Marianne Williamson in the 2020 Democratic primaries and said Shanahan struck her as “very honest.” “I think her youth will be a good thing.”
Scott Rewick and Laura Taylor, who came to Oakland from Sonoma for the veep reveal, agreed. Rewick said he’s a Republican and Taylor a Democrat, but both are disillusioned by their party’s choices. Rewick said he hasn’t voted in years. Taylor said she voted for Biden in 2020, but she agreed with Kennedy that people shouldn’t vote for the major-party candidates “out of fear.”
“This is the kind of guy that can get me back into voting,” Rewick, 55, said. “We need someone who can really heal this country. I walk away with hope.”
Among the gathering wearing a Kennedy 2024 button and ballcap was Joanie Jones. The 70-year-old Richmond woman said she didn’t vote for either Biden or Trump in the 2020 election “because I was so disgusted” by the choices. But Kennedy won her over with his commitment to “medical freedom,” including not forcing people to get vaccinated.
“That’s all he had to do to get my vote,” said Jones, who said she remembers Kennedy’s father and uncle from her childhood and suspects the government had something to do with their deaths but that Kennedy is carrying on their tradition. “He’s the freedom candidate.”