Robert F Kennedy Jr, the popular anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who is running for president as an independent, revealed on Tuesday that his running mate will be Nicole Shanahan. A Silicon Valley lawyer and rich benefactor, Shanahan has actually never ever held workplace and has little background in politics. Shanahan, 38, was formerly best understood in the media as the better half of Google co-founder and tech billionaire Sergey Brin. Their divorce in 2021 made headings after the Wall Street Journal reported that Shanahan supposedly had an affair with Brin’s buddy and fellow tech magnate Elon Musk, leading to a falling out in between Brin and the Tesla president. Shanahan and Musk rejected any affair occurred. In current months, Shanahan ended up being a significant backer of Kennedy’s project and bankrolled his questionable Super Bowl commercial that mimicked a John F Kennedy project advertisement and triggered Kennedy relative to condemn the area. Shanahan contributed $4m to the Super Pac behind the advertisement, informing the New York Times that she saw a chance to highlight Kennedy’s candidateship and concurred with his positions on the environment and vaccines. Shanahan has actually mentioned that she is not an anti-vaxxer, she informed the Times that “I do question about vaccine injuries” and recommended that there require to be more discussions about vaccines. Kennedy has actually consistently promoted many frauds about vaccinations, consisting of unmasked theories that connect youth vaccines with autism. Shanahan and Brin have a child with autism, and Shanahan informed People publication in 2015 that she commits around 60% of her time to investigating the condition. Shanahan has actually likewise contributed financing to the University of California, Davis’s Mind Institute, which looks into autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions. The Mind Institute did not react to an ask for discuss Shanahan’s contribution or her candidateship. In an interview with Newsweek released the very same day Kennedy revealed Shanahan as his running mate, Shanahan blamed the media for calling Kennedy an “anti-vaxxer” and stated that a “Silicon Valley mommy” pal informed her to do her own research study. Shanahan and Kennedy discussed her becoming his vice-presidential choice throughout a supper celebration last month, according to the interview. Before turning into one of Kennedy’s most popular donors, Shanahan formerly contributed thousands in project contributions to a variety of Democratic political leaders. A few of the receivers consisted of the California congressman Ro Khanna, the Virginia congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, and numerous fundraising efforts backing Joe Biden for president. Shanahan matured in Oakland, in what she has actually referred to as a tough and sometimes violent youth that consisted of counting on federal government well-being and her daddy being detected with schizophrenia. She later on went to law school to end up being a patent lawyer and wed a financier from the Bay Area, however separated in 2015. Shanahan initially satisfied Brin at the Wanderlust yoga retreat and the set started dating, according to the Wall Street Journal, weding in 2018. Their divorce ended up being the topic of extreme media analysis both for the supposed affair with Musk, in addition to Shanahan supposedly looking for $1bn in a settlement. The divorce was ultimately settled in a personal arbitration. A lot of Shanahan’s public interests and humanitarian contributions are emblematic of the rich world of Silicon Valley that has actually pertained to welcome Kennedy as one of their own. She is president of a non-profit that funds a series of causes consisting of reproductive durability, a field of growing fascination within the tech world, and has actually promised to offer millions in moneying its research study. In interviews, Shanahan typically speaks in Silicon Valley tropes such as satisfying her existing hubby at Burning Man and participating in the Hoffman Institute, a weeklong treatment retreat popular with stars and tech elites. Throughout Kennedy’s prolonged statement of Shanahan’s candidateship, he admired her as a “technologist” and stated that they share the very same worths and issues about the nation. “I discovered a vice-president who shares my indignation about the involvement of huge tech as a partner in the censorship, security and the info warfare that our federal government is presently waging versus the American individuals,” Kennedy stated.
Nicole Shanahan: from benefactor legal representative to RFK Jr’s running mate
