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Tuesday



POLITICAL: RFK Jr.’s VP pick has given thousands to Democrats over the years, including Biden

From David Wright



Nicole Shanahan, whom the New York Times reports is the VP pick of Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has a years-long history of large donations to Democratic candidates and causes, FEC records show.



Shanahan is expected to be introduced today as RFK Jr.’s running mate, and her personal fortune and political giving could be a major asset to the campaign. Shanahan was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and there has been speculation that the Bay Area tech veteran could reach into her own pockets to continue aiding the cause.



Already, Shanahan has been a major contributor to Kennedy Jr.’s effort. She told the New York Times that she had given $4 million to American Values 2024, the lead super PAC supporting RFK Jr., to help fund a pricey and high-profile Super Bowl advertisement. Shanahan has also given the maximum individual contribution allowable directly to Kennedy’s campaign, $6,600.



In addition to giving to pro-Kennedy causes this cycle, Shanahan gave the individual max to California Rep. Ro Khanna, a leadership member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in April of last year.



Prior to this election cycle, Shanahan was a large donor to Democratic candidates and causes. She gave $25,000 to Joe Biden’s joint fundraising agreement in June of 2020, and the max individual contribution to his campaign. Shanahan also gave $19,400 directly to the Democratic National Committee that year.



But in a potential preview of her interest in Biden challengers, Shanahan also gave the max contribution to Marianna Williamson’s White House bid in 2019, as well as a PAC aligned with another contender, Pete Buttigieg.



FEC records show that Shanahan’s political giving began in 2014, and she was a max donor to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in and contributed to her joint fundraising agreement in 2016.



In the intervening years, she has also given max contributions to a variety of Democratic congressional candidates – including establishment favorites like Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, and red-state Democrats like Richard Ojeda in West Virginia. Another notable contribution from Shanahan came in 2020, when she gave the maximum individual contribution to Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a Democrat who mounted a primary challenge to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that year.





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//www.cnn.com/2024/03/26/politics/nicole-shanahan-vp-rfk-jr/index.html
Who is Nicole Shanahan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vice presidential pick?
By Aaron Pellish and Gregory Krieg, CNN

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named Silicon Valley attorney and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan as his vice presidential pick at a campaign rally Tuesday in her hometown of Oakland, California.

The 38-year-old, first-time candidate enters the race largely unknown to the public outside of tech circles but was an early supporter of Kennedy’s presidential bid, backing him last year while he was still running in the Democratic primary.

Kennedy’s campaign is hoping Shanahan’s youth and fluency in the tech world’s anti-establishment rhetoric will help him expand and excite his base of support. Though Shanahan has been more cautious in her statements about vaccines than Kennedy, a leading skeptic, she has repeatedly questioned their safety.

The deep-pocketed investor could also provide a financial boost to backstop Kennedy’s expensive campaign and its attempt to get on the presidential ballot in all 50 states. That effort has been stunted by requirements in certain states that candidates file alongside a running mate.

‘A hard childhood’
An Oakland native, Shanahan was raised by a father diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and a mother who immigrated to the US from China, according to People magazine. Her family relied on welfare growing up and struggled to make ends meet, the publication reported.

“I had a very hard childhood with a lot of sadness, fear and instability,” Shanahan told People. “At times there was violence.”

Shanahan, who was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, told The New York Times last month that she gave $4 million to a pro-Kennedy super PAC to help pay for an ad, which she assisted in producing, that ran during this year’s Super Bowl. The spot repurposed video from the 1960 presidential campaign of Kennedy’s uncle, John F. Kennedy, and drew criticism from several Kennedy family members.

Before aligning with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Shanahan contributed to Democratic campaigns. She gave $25,000 to President Joe Biden’s joint fundraising committee in 2020, according to federal campaign finance records and labeled herself “a lifelong Democrat” in an interview with Newsweek earlier this year.

‘Not an anti-vaxxer’
Shanahan has previously said she supports Kennedy, 70, in part because of his environmental advocacy and for his stance on vaccines and children’s health.

“I do wonder about vaccine injuries,” she told The Times. While stressing that she is “not an anti-vaxxer,” Shanahan said, “There needs to be a space to have these conversations.” In the interview with Newsweek, she characterized Kennedy’s false claims about vaccines as an effort to raise awareness about “vaccine safety” while again pushing back on the label “anti-vaxxer.”

“Framing Bobby as an anti-vaxxer is the most powerful way of alienating the progressive voter from his campaign. What he’s highlighting is vaccine safety,” she told the publication.

Kennedy is among the most prominent vaccine skeptics in the country and, through his role as the head of Children’s Health Defense, has helped spread falsehoods about vaccines, including the claim that they can lead to “injuries.”

Shanahan told Newsweek that she received a Moderna Covid-19 vaccine and a booster and that her daughter with Brin, Echo, has received all her regularly scheduled vaccines. She also told the magazine that she suffered from “significant health issues” since receiving her Covid vaccine.

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

Shanahan is the founder and president of Bia-Echo Foundation, which is focused on “reproductive longevity & equality, criminal justice reform and a healthy and livable planet,” according to the organization’s website. Shanahan told People magazine last year that part of her group’s work is focused on finding a cure for autism.

Shanahan’s daughter was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, she told People.

In the public eye
Shanahan and Brin were divorced last year. In 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that Shanahan had an affair with Elon Musk, prompting Shanahan and Brin to separate. Shanahan denied having an affair with Musk in an interview with People magazine last year. Musk denied the affair in a social media post shortly after the Wall Street Journal story published in 2022.

In an essay published in People last year, Shanahan said the Wall Street Journal story had “been a disaster” affecting her career and personal life.

“I can’t think of anything worse for a professional woman’s career than publicly shaming her for a sexual act,” she wrote. “Worst yet, throw in infidelity. Worst yet, throw in two wealthy and famous men.”

Shanahan graduated with a degree in Asian studies, economics and Mandarin Chinese from the University of Puget Sound in Washington state, according to her LinkedIn profile, before earning her law degree from Santa Clara University in the Bay Area.

She is a CodeX fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Legal Informatics.
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