Who is Nicole Shanahan, RFK Jr’s possible vice president pick?

Nicole Shanahan, a Northern California environmental lawyer who co-funded and helped create Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s $7 million Super Bowl campaign commercial, has apparently emerged as a top candidate to be Kennedy's running mate.

RFK Jr., who is running a long-shot bid to become U.S. president, has said he will announce his choice for vice president on March 26 in Oakland, California.

Shanahan, 38, the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, kept mum on her VP aspirations during a chat with USA TODAY on Monday. But she grew up in Oakland.

The Kennedy campaign on Monday also did not confirm or deny Shanahan as a possible VP choice as first reported by Mediaite on Saturday. Other rumored names for the spot had included former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura and New York Jets star quarterback Aaron Rodgers, neither of whom has any obvious connections to Oakland.

On Friday, a video of Kennedy was posted saying he had made his VP pick and "It’s not any of the people they’ve been talking about."

"There has been a lot of speculation in the media about Mr. Kennedy’s pick of vice presidential running mate," Kennedy's campaign told USA TODAY in a statement on Monday. "The official announcement will be on March 26 in Oakland, Calif."

Shananan is' definitely interested' in supporting RFK Jr. campaign

Shanahan told USA TODAY she supports Kennedy's candidacy.

"I am definitely interested in further supporting RFK Jr. for President," Shanahan said. "In my opinion, he is the best presidential candidate we have on the issues close to my heart: environmental health, regenerative agriculture and social justice."

Shanahan told USA TODAY that her roughly $4 million donation to American Values, a super Political Action Committee backing Kennedy, was specifically meant to help pay for the commercial. She helped choose the look and music for the 30-second spot, inspired by an ad from his uncle John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. Kennedy is the son of Robert F. Kennedy who served as attorney general in his brother's administration.

Shanahan, a registered Democrat, told USA TODAY last month that she gave Kennedy's campaign $6,600 when he was running in the Democratic primary last fall and was "upset" when he left the party to run for president as an independent.

But, Shanahan said, "I had a change of heart as I was listening to people and watching his campaign and seeing the polls ‒ those were the three things that were viable to me that this is an interesting campaign."

Shanahan could be a 'smart choice,' experts say

Independent women are crucial to Democratic candidates this year. They prevented a red wave in the 2022 midterm election when they voted for Democratic U.S. Senate candidates against Trump-endorsed Republicans, said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston who oversees the USA TODAY/Suffolk University survey.

"RFK Jr. is already very competitive among independent women today. In our last national survey, RFK Jr. only trailed Joe Biden by 8 points and Donald Trump by 2 points among independent women," Paleologos said. "So, future polling will tell us whether Nicole Shanahan adds anything to a demographic that Kennedy already is showing strength in."

Shanahan's presence on the ticket could solidify these voters and open the door to younger Democratic and Republican women, Paleologos said.

"She's young, rich, and has donated to numerous Democratic causes while having a lot of powerful Republican business associates in her social circles," Paleologos said. "That goes a long way in politics."

Brian Sobel, a longtime political analyst based in the San Francisco Bay Area agrees. With age being a major topic in this year's presidential race, Shanahan is "the antithesis of the status quo," he said.

Choosing her "may be a natural selection for Kennedy to help cement women and young women voters, in particular," he said, despite her lack of political experience. "She may also appeal to voters who wish to support diversity on the presidential ticket, along with backing a smart, savvy, progressive entrepreneur, who is younger than anyone yet being identified as a possible candidate."

Shanahan's background

According to her LinkedIn profile, Shanahan is the founder and president of Bia-Echo Foundation, which is described as "a private foundation that aims to invest in changemakers at the forefront of innovation who are tackling some of the world's greatest challenges: reproductive longevity & equality, criminal justice reform and a healthy & livable planet."

Shanahan is also the founder and CEO of ClearAccessIP, "an automated patent management and valuation platform," based in Palo Alto, California, her LinkedIn bio said. Shanahan received her bachelor's degree from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, studying Asian Studies, Economics and Mandarin Chinese. Shanahan then got her law degree at Santa Clara University School of Law.

She married Google’s Brin in 2018, but they divorced last summer. Shanahan and Brin share a daughter named Echo.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nicole Shanahan may be Robert Kennedy’s running mate. What to know