Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Taps Attorney Nicole Shanahan As Running Mate

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that he had selected wealthy Bay Area attorney and philanthropist Nicole Shanahan as his vice-presidential running mate.

Shanahan, the 38-year-old daughter of a Chinese immigrant who grew up in Oakland, California, and was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is a major Kennedy backer. She gave $4 million to a pro-Kennedy super PAC, American Values 2024, to air the retro-style Super Bowl ad that conjured the 1960 campaign of Kennedy’s uncle, former President John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy, an environmental attorney, anti-vaccine advocate and conspiracy theorist, considered a variety of unconventional candidates to serve as his running mate. Among the names in the mix: the rapper “Killer Mike” Render, NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and TV host Mike Rowe, Kennedy told the San Francisco-based radio stationKCBS on Monday morning.

Kennedy told “The State of California” host Doug Sovern that Shanahan stood out because of her youth, athleticism and commitment to “unraveling the war machine and the corporate capture” of the federal government.

Shanahan founded ClearAccessIP, a company that aims to help entrepreneurs develop and manage patents, and sold it for an undisclosed amount in 2020.

In 2019, Shanahan launched the Bia-Echo Foundation to distribute $100 million that she is donating to programs that fight climate change, reform the criminal justice system and help women become pregnant later in life.

Shanahan identifies with Kennedy’s focus on the links between environmental pollution and public health problems, she told The New York Times in a February interview following the Super Bowl ad.

“I do think we have an environmental health