Lengthy-shot United States presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has revealed his working mate to be Nicole Shanahan, a California tech-industry lawyer and philanthropist.
Kennedy — the son of the late Legal professional Basic Robert Kennedy and a member of probably the most outstanding political dynasties within the US — unveiled his choose at a rally in Oakland, California, on Tuesday.
“I needed somebody who’s battle-tested, in a position to face up to criticism and the controversy and all of the defamations and slanders and perjuries which can be thrown towards anybody who embarks on a presidential marketing campaign,” he mentioned as he launched Shanahan.
Kennedy himself has confronted criticism for his third-party marketing campaign, to not point out controversial views together with anti-vaccine misinformation.
He stays a distant challenger within the 2024 presidential race, during which former President Donald Trump — a Republican — and incumbent President Joe Biden — a Democrat — are anticipated to go face to face for a second time.
However critics warn Kennedy could possibly be a “spoiler candidate”, drawing votes away from what’s anticipated to be a tightly fought Biden-Trump rematch.
A Reuters/Ipsos ballot earlier this month confirmed Biden with a slim lead over Trump: One share level separated them, with Biden receiving 39 % help to Trump’s 38 %.
An estimated 11 % of respondents mentioned they might go for one other candidate, whereas 12 % have been weighing whether or not to vote in any respect.
Who’s Nicole Shanahan?
A political newcomer, Shanahan is from the San Francisco Bay Space, a Democratic stronghold within the left-leaning state of California.
The ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, she has been a long-time Democratic donor, even contributing to Biden’s presidential marketing campaign in 2020.
Standing on stage beneath a banner that learn, “Declare your independence,” Kennedy additionally described her as an “avid surfer who attended faculty on a softball scholarship”.
He additionally performed up her credentials as a lawyer with expertise in synthetic intelligence and Silicon Valley, a hub for innovation within the US.
“Expertise has been a lifelong ardour for my future vice chairman,” he instructed the gang in Oakland.
“That is vital as a result of I additionally needed a vice chairman who shares my indignation in regards to the participation of massive tech as a associate within the censorship and the surveillance and the data warfare that our authorities is at the moment waging towards the American individuals.”
Taking the rostrum herself, Shanahan evoked the struggles of her Bay Space upbringing, calling them “the supply of my politics and convictions”.
She described her mom as a Chinese language immigrant who labored at a care house and her father as a person who struggled with substance abuse.
“Each time my dad misplaced his job, my household simply couldn’t cowl bills: meals, fuel, clothes, maintenance,” she mentioned. “I do know lots of People know precisely what that’s like: to be only one misfortune away from catastrophe. I don’t assume we might have made it with out meals stamps and authorities assist.”
She credited these experiences with informing her choice to hitch Kennedy on the marketing campaign path: “It has change into a part of my willpower to do one thing for my nation.”
Shanahan acknowledged as properly that she turned “very rich in a while in life”.
“The aim of wealth is to assist these in want,” she mentioned. “And I need to convey that again to politics too. That’s the function of privilege.”
Tremendous Bowl industrial
Earlier than she was named to the vice presidential slot on Kennedy’s ticket, Shanahan had performed a key position in shaping the impartial candidate’s messaging.
US media reported in February that Shanahan took the lead in creating an commercial for Kennedy, to be aired through the Tremendous Bowl, the fruits of the American soccer season.
Shopping for air time through the Tremendous Bowl broadcast is notoriously costly. The soccer match is among the most-watched sporting occasions within the US, and the 2024 broadcast broke data, attracting 123.4 million viewers.
Shanahan instructed the New York Instances that she contributed an estimated $4m for a 30-second advert purchase throughout this yr’s recreation, to advertise Kennedy’s marketing campaign. She additionally mentioned she contributed artistic recommendation, serving to to form the commercial’s message.
The commercial sparked controversy, because it recreated the feel and appear of a 1960 marketing campaign advert for his late uncle, President John F Kennedy.
Members of the Kennedy household blasted the TV spot as an try to revenue off of the late president’s legacy, prompting the impartial candidate to deal with the criticisms on social media.
“I’m so sorry if the Tremendous Bowl commercial brought on anybody in my household ache. The advert was created and aired by the American Values Tremendous PAC with none involvement or approval from my marketing campaign,” he wrote, including: “I like you all.”
Selecting a vice chairman
Kennedy’s announcement in Oakland on Tuesday ends ongoing hypothesis about whom he would choose as his working mate.
Names together with American soccer star Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota governor and wrestler Jesse Ventura had been floated as doable vice chairman picks.
Shanahan’s choice is probably going to present Kennedy’s marketing campaign a fundraising increase over the approaching weeks, as presidential hopefuls barrel towards the November basic elections.
President Biden appeared at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday in a uncommon joint look along with his vice chairman, Oakland native Kamala Harris.
However Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has but to pick his working mate, regardless of intense hypothesis.
Prospects embrace his former rivals for the Republican presidential nomination: Tim Scott, an erstwhile contender within the 2024 race, and Marco Rubio, a US senator from Florida who sparred with Trump in 2016.
Different names producing hypothesis are US Consultant Elise Stefanik and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
One politician decidedly not on the record is Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence. They publicly fell out over the occasions of January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in an effort to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election.
Behind the scenes, Trump pressured Pence to scuttle the Electoral School tally that was underway. Rioters within the US Capitol have been heard to chant the phrase, “Hold Mike Pence,” when he didn’t.
Earlier this month, in an interview on Fox Information, Pence described Trump as a risk to the Republican Celebration.
“Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that’s at odds with the conservative agenda that we ruled on throughout our 4 years,” he mentioned. “That’s why I can not in good conscience endorse Donald Trump on this marketing campaign.”