RFK Jr.'s running mate makes her campaign trail debut — off stage

HOUSTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate launched her campaign trail debut in Texas — but for most of the event, Nicole Shanahan was literally out of the spotlight.

Despite being the marquee guest for a criminal justice reform panel discussion at the LOV3 nightclub, she and her husband sat in a booth next to the DJ’s setup, off stage and out of frame of the cameras. When she did take the stage, she spoke for less than 15 minutes before taking audience questions.

“What I’m realizing now is this campaign is so much bigger than anything I could have imagined,” Shanahan told the crowd of about 40 people that included campaign volunteers.

The tech entrepreneur and former Democratic Party donor has been dogged with criticisms that her main asset to the independent presidential campaign is her personal wealth. Since being named on the ticket in late March, she has limited her public exposure to friendly podcast interviews, virtual events and social media posts.

Shanahan’s first in-person, solo campaign stop is unlikely to persuade skeptics.

The event, organized by Angela Stanton King, a Kennedy campaign consultant who worked for Donald Trump’s campaign last cycle, had minimal production and fanfare.

Unlike Kennedy’s campaign events, this panel skipped the video trailer that usually proceeds Kennedy’s walk out on stage as well as the typical security presence from Gavin de Becker & Associates staff, who flank Kennedy and screen attendees. After the event, Shanahan did not stay for a selfie line, instead she was whisked away by a white SUV.

“We are so honored to have our VP here in attendance and listening,” said Stanton King, the event's emcee and a consultant for the Kennedy campaign.

Stanton King billed the panel event, which included a child support reform activist and her former co-star on a BET reality show, as the first in a criminal justice reform-focused tour for the Kennedy campaign.

Shanahan’s remarks were light on policy, but included admiration for Stanton King’s anti-abortion views.

Shanahan described an earlier private conversation during her remarks, saying she saw a "gold light" in Stanton King's eye while talking about “why you’re a pro-lifer."

"And I realized there was nothing you could say that I would disagree with because it was coming from your protection for the mothers and children in your community,” Shanahan said.

Stanton King runs a nonprofit in Georgia that supports women who chose not to get abortions and said she is advising the Kennedy campaign on abortion policy, according to multiple posts on her social media account.

Both Shanahan and Kennedy have issued ambitious statements on abortion, with Kennedy expressing support at times for an abortion ban and for abortion to be legal until “full term.” The Kennedy campaign walked both statements back.

On criminal justice, the subject of the event, Shanahan mentioned donating money to the campaign of a progressive district attorney and learning about restorative justice.

“But then I realized it goes even deeper. I was learning how to heal myself. I was learning how to heal my daughter,” she said. “I was understanding what human health and spirit needs, and so I just realized what everybody needs is access to land, access to clean food, access to clean water, access to opportunity.”

Criminal justice reform is part of the stated mission of Shanahan's nonprofit, Bia-Echo. It has distributed $11.6 million in grants for this purpose, according to financial disclosures filed to the IRS.

Volunteers also used the event to gather signatures to get Kennedy on the ballot in the Lone Star State before Monday’s ballot access deadline. The campaign needed to gather more than 100,000 signatures from registered voters who did not participate in either a Democratic or Republican primary. The campaign is expected to turn in more than the required amount, according to Richard Winger, whose Ballot Access News site tracks third-party ballot access.

Kennedy is poised to put forth the strongest third-party challenge in decades, thanks in part to his surname. Shanahan’s largest applause line didn't come from her talking about her own perspective or background, but instead when she mentioned Kennedy’s family legacy.

“Bobby Kennedy is finishing a story of what was robbed from his father and his uncle and that’s what this is all about,” she said to applause. “His father and uncle were murdered for taking a stand. They were both shot in the head. They were silenced.”

“It’s not going to be easy,” she continued. “We’re up against so much shit right now.”

Peder Schaefer contributed to this report.