Nicole Shanahan: The Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Joining Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Running Mate

TFD – Discover the latest in the presidential campaign as Silicon Valley entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan joins Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his running mate. Learn about her background, views, and impact in this exclusive report.

Nicole Shanahan, an entrepreneur and attorney from Silicon Valley, was selected by independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his running mate during a Tuesday campaign event in Oakland, California, Shanahan’s hometown.

The 38-year-old, first-time contender is mainly unknown to the general public outside of the IT community, although she backed Kennedy early in the Democratic primary last year, when he was still vying for the presidency.

During her speech on Tuesday, Shanahan stated that she had “not thought much of” Kennedy at first but was captivated to his campaign after listening to his interviews, which she claimed gave her “hope for our democracy.”

“I observed an intelligent, kind, and reasonable person. For the first time in a long time, I felt optimism for our democracy when I came across someone who speaks up on topics that are regularly disregarded by our government despite their fundamental importance to human health and welfare, Shanahan remarked.

Kennedy’s team is betting that Shanahan’s youth and familiarity with the anti-establishment rhetoric of the software industry would enable him to broaden and energize his base of support. Shanahan has frequently questioned the safety of vaccines, even if she has been more circumspect than Kennedy, a prominent skeptic. Shanahan falsely implied on Tuesday that “pharmaceutical medicines,” such as prescription drugs and vaccinations, may be a factor in the increased incidence of autism in youngsters.

The wealthy backer might also contribute financially to support Kennedy’s costly campaign and its endeavor to be included on every state’s presidential ballot. Certain states’ requirements that candidates file with a running mate have hindered that attempt.

“A difficult upbringing”

Shanahan, an Oakland native, was brought up by a mother who moved to the US from China and a father who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to People magazine. According to the publication, her family struggled to make ends meet and was dependent on welfare when she was growing up.

Shanahan said to People, “I had a very difficult childhood with a lot of sadness, fear, and instability.” “There was violence occasionally.”

She revealed to her fans in Oakland on Tuesday that her father “struggled to keep a job” and was “plagued by substance abuse.”

“When I look at the numbers of the millions of Americans who suffer from addiction, depression, or other problems, I think of him,” she remarked. This is among the current epidemics. It has an impact on almost all American families.

During her speech, Shanahan mentioned her riches briefly but focused more on her low-income beginnings in a household that was dependent on food stamps.

“I became extremely wealthy later in life, as you probably know, but my Oakland roots taught me many lessons I’ve never forgotten, including the idea that the best use of money is to support those in need,” Shanahan remarked.

Shanahan, who was formerly married to Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, revealed to The New York Times last month that she contributed $4 million to a super PAC that supported Kennedy in order to help fund an advertisement that Shanahan helped produce and ran during this year’s Super Bowl. Several Kennedy family members criticized the advertisement, which used footage from Kennedy’s uncle John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign.

Prior to joining forces with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Shanahan made campaign contributions for Democratic causes. Federal campaign finance records show that she contributed $25,000 to President Joe Biden’s joint fundraising committee in 2020. She also described herself as “a lifelong Democrat” in a Newsweek interview from earlier this year.

She formally announced on Tuesday that she was “leaving the Democratic Party” and that the party had “lost their way.” She declared that she would bring “the best ideals and impulses” from the party to the Kennedy candidacy.

“Not against vaccines”

Shanahan has previously declared that she supports Kennedy, 70, in part because to his support of the environment and his beliefs regarding vaccinations and children’s health.

Regarding vaccination injuries, she expressed her curiosity to The Times. “There needs to be a space to have these conversations,” Shanahan stated, emphasizing that she is “not anti-vaxxer.” She again disputed the term “anti-vaxxer” and described Kennedy’s misinformation about vaccines in the Newsweek interview as an attempt to increase public knowledge of “vaccine safety.”

“By portraying Bobby as an opponent of vaccines, he can effectively distance his campaign from progressive voters.” “Vaccine safety is what he’s emphasizing,” she told the newspaper.

As the leader of Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy is one of the nation’s most well-known opponents of vaccines and has contributed to the dissemination of myths about them, such as the idea that they might cause “injuries.”

Shanahan reported to Newsweek that she had received both a booster shot and the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, and that Echo, her daughter with Brin, had received all of the vaccinations that were routinely scheduled for her. She also disclosed to the magazine that she had experienced “severe health problems” as a result of the Covid vaccination.

She said, “I’d like to know if they’re related, but I don’t know.”

According to the organization’s website, Shanahan is the founder and president of the Bia-Echo Foundation, which focuses on “reproductive longevity & equality, criminal justice reform, and a healthy and livable planet.” Finding a treatment for autism is one aspect of Shanahan’s group’s effort, she told People magazine last year.

Shanahan discussed her and Kennedy’s common objective of eliminating chronic illness on Tuesday.

“I became involved in it as a result of my personal experience with reproductive health and the challenging process of raising my autistic daughter,” the woman stated.

Pharmaceutical medicine has its place, but no single safety study can evaluate the long-term effects of multiple prescriptions filled consecutively and multiple shots given consecutively throughout a child’s development. We just should perform that study now, and we don’t,” she continued.

In the spotlight

Last year, Shanahan and Brin got divorced. Shanahan and Brin parted ways in 2022 when The Wall Street Journal revealed that Shanahan had an affair with Elon Musk. Earlier this year, in an interview with People magazine, Shanahan denied having an affair with Musk. In a social media tweet shortly after the Wall Street Journal article was published in 2022, Musk denied having an affair.

Shanahan claimed that the Wall Street Journal article had “been a disaster” for her work and personal life in an essay that was published in People last year.

“Publicly humiliating a professional woman for engaging in sexual activity is the worst thing that can happen to her career,” the writer penned. “To make matters worse, add infidelity. Even worse, add two well-known and affluent males.

According to her LinkedIn page, Shanahan graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Washington state with a degree in Asian studies, economics, and Mandarin Chinese. She then attended Santa Clara University in the Bay Area to obtain her law degree.

She works at the Center for Legal Informatics at Stanford Law School as a CodeX fellow.