Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will announce his running mate on Tuesday afternoon, and is expected to pick Nicole Shanahan, a tech lawyer with little political experience but a track record of donating large sums to Democratic candidates, the New York Times reported.
Shanahan was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin and now runs a private ... [+]
Shanahan was married to Google co-founder and billionaire Sergey Brin from 2018 through January 2022, which reportedly ended after Shanahan had an affair with fellow billionaire and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (Shanahan and Musk have both denied these allegations).
In 2013, Shanahan founded ClearAccessIP (now known as IPwe), a tech law firm that uses AI to analyze and manage patent portfolios for clients.
Shanahan left the company in 2020 to pursue philanthropy, founding the Bia-Echo Foundation, a private foundation which invests in “reproductive longevity & equality, criminal justice reform and a healthy & livable planet.”
Shanahan is a longtime donor to Democratic presidential campaigns, giving $2,800 to Marianne Williamson and Pete Buttigieg, and co-hosted a fundraiser for Buttigieg, before donating $25,000 to the Biden Victory Fund after he clinched the nomination.
Shanahan made headlines in February after the New York Times reported she gave $4 million to a Super PAC to pay for the controversial retro-styled Kennedy campaign ad that re-used parts of a John F. Kennedy ad from 1960 and aired during the Super Bowl (Kennedy eventually apologized after his family members took issue with the appropriation).
Shanahan previously gave the maximum $6,600 to Kennedy in 2022, and told the New York Times he aligns with her stances on issues like environmental health and vaccines.
“There has been a lot of speculation in the media about Mr. Kennedy's pick of vice presidential running mate,” the campaign told Forbes in a statement. Kennedy will announce his pick at an event at the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts in Oakland, Calif. on Tuesday. The event is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. local time, 2 p.m. Eastern.
Rumors about Kennedy’s possible running mate circulated, with New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former professional wrestler and Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura both named as possible contenders. However, Ventura’s son quickly told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune his father “has not been officially asked.” Kennedy also downplayed Rodgers and Ventura, telling donors at a fundraiser on Friday “we have an extraordinary person, I can’t tell you who it is, but it’s really not any of the people they’ve been talking about.” Mediaite released a report on March 15 confirming the sites www.kennedyshanahan.com and pay.kennedyshanahan.com were both registered by the campaign’s senior advisor Link Lipsitz. An anonymous source in the campaign later told the outlet that Kennedy and Shanahan “align on numerous issues,” and the campaign was “looking for a candidate who can help finance the ballot access initiative.” The Kennedy campaign did not confirm or deny the report. Amaryllis Fox, Kennedy’s campaign manager and daughter-in-law, confirmed that the campaign did meet with Shanahan in a post on social media after the report was released. “America is very lucky to have Nicole Shanahan in its corner and it was one of the highlights of the VP discernment process to get to know her incredible body of work,” Shanahan wrote.
We estimated Brin’s net worth at $113.8 billion, making him the 10th wealthiest person in the world. Shanahan sought at least $1 billion from Brin during the divorce proceedings, the Wall Street Journal reported. However, the final terms of the divorce were settled in confidential arbitration. Brin has also donated $23 million to Shanahan’s Bia-Echo Foundation, months after filing for divorce.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Shanahan’s alleged affair with Elon Musk caused a major rift between the two billionaires. Brin reportedly told his financial advisors to sell his shares in Tesla, after previously helping rescue the electric vehicle manufacturer during the 2008 financial crisis with a $500,000 investment. Musk, who called the Journal’s reporting “bs,” tried to brush aside the rumors by posting a selfie with Brin at a birthday party in 2022. However, Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson later reported that Brin was trying to duck out of the frame when the picture was taken.