Kennedy’s Running Mate Suggests They May Drop Out of the Presidential Race and Endorse Trump

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate said in a podcast interview that they were considering dropping their struggling independent presidential bid and endorsing Republican Donald J. Trump, blaming the Democratic Party for what she said was a “sabotage” of their campaign.

In a nearly hourlong interview posted online on Tuesday, Nicole Shanahan, a Silicon Valley investor who has poured more than $10 million into the Kennedy campaign, appeared to concede that their effort was not likely to end in victory. The campaign is running out of money, its poll numbers are falling and its efforts to secure ballot access across all 50 states have hit repeated snags.

“There’s two options that we’re looking at,” Ms. Shanahan said. “One is staying in,” hoping to get 5 percent of the vote to establish a viable political party that will have more access to money and be able to get onto election ballots in 2028. “But we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency, as we draw votes from Trump — we draw somehow more votes from Trump.”

She continued: “Or we walk away, right now, and join forces with Donald Trump, and we walk away from that and explain to our base why we are making this decision. Not easy.”

In response to a request for comment, Stefanie Spear, a spokeswoman for the Kennedy campaign sent a link to a message that Mr. Kennedy posted on X Tuesday, which read, in part: “As always, I am willing to talk with leaders of any political party to further the goals I have served for 40 years in my career and in this campaign.”

Ms. Shanahan is a former donor to the Democratic Party who was once married to Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google. In the podcast interview, she said she was “so disappointed” that she had previously supported the