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Nicole Shanahan,\u00a0Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a>\u00a0\u2018s pick to be his running mate in his independent bid for president, brings youth and considerable wealth to Kennedy\u2019s long-shot campaign but is little known outside Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n Shanahan, 38, is a California lawyer and philanthropist. Shanahan leads the Bia-Echo Foundation, an organization she founded to direct money toward issues including women\u2019s reproductive science, criminal justice reform and environmental causes. She also is a Stanford University fellow and was the founder and chief executive of ClearAccessIP, a patent management firm that was sold in 2020.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Shanahan talked about her hardscrabble upbringing in Oakland, the daughter of a mother who immigrated from China and an Irish and German-American father \u201cplagued by substance abuse\u201d who \u201cstruggled to keep a job.\u201d Touching on her family\u2019s reliance on government assistance, Shanahan said that, although she had become \u201cvery wealthy later on in life,\u201d she felt she could relate to Americans being \u201cjust one misfortune away from disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe purpose of wealth is to help those in need. That\u2019s what it\u2019s for,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cAnd I want to bring that back to politics, too. That is the purpose of privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n She also referenced discredited theories about vaccines as\u00a0Kennedy and his allies have been accused of doing<\/a>.<\/p>\n The attorney talked about her overall passion to help fight \u201cchronic disease,\u201d referencing her own struggles with fertility and her five-year-old daughter, who she said has autism. Shanahan cited \u201ctoxic substances in our environment,\u201d \u201celectromagnetic pollution\u201d from devices like cellphones and \u2014 drawing her largest applause of the day \u2014 the lack of research surrounding long-term effects of childhood vaccinations.<\/p>\n \u201cOur children are not well, our people are not well, and our country will not be well for very much longer, if we don\u2019t heed this desperate call for attention,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Any link between vaccines and autism has long been debunked, and repeated scientific studies in the U.S. and abroad have found no evidence that vaccines can cause autism. Research has also discredited concerns that children get too many vaccines at once.<\/p>\n Vaccines have been proven to be safe and effective in laboratory testing and in real world use in hundreds of millions of people over decades. The World Health Organization credits childhood vaccines with\u00a0preventing as many as 5 million deaths a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n While no medical intervention is risk-free, doctors and researchers have proven that risks from disease are generally far greater than the risks from vaccines.<\/p>\n Shanahan was married to Google<\/a> co-founder Sergey Brin from 2018 to 2023, and they have a young daughter. She was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Kennedy made his announcement.<\/p>\n Before the announcement, Kennedy\u2019s campaign manager and daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox<\/a> Kennedy, praised Shanahan\u2019s work on behalf of \u201chonest governance, racial equity, regenerative agriculture and children\u2019s and maternal health.\u201d She said the work \u201creflects many of our country\u2019s most urgent needs.\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy, who said in an interview Monday with \u201cThe State of California\u201d on KCBS radio that his VP search placed a priority on \u201dsomebody who could represent young people,\u201d said Tuesday that Shanahan \u2014 who he said, like him, has \u201cleft the Democratic Party\u201d \u2014 also shares his concerns about government overreach and his distrust in major political parties\u2019 abilities to make lasting change.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019ll tell you that she now understands at the defense agencies work for the military industrial complex, that health agencies work for big pharma and the USDA works for big ag and the processed food cartels,\u201d Kennedy said at his Oakland rally. \u201cThe EPA is in cahoots with the polluters, that the scientists can be mercenaries, that government officials sometimes act as censors, and that the Fed works for Wall Street and allows millionaire bankers to prey upon on Main Street and the American worker.\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy also said that, in part, Shanahan\u2019s heritage played at least some role in his selection of her.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted someone who would honor the traditions our nation, as a nation of immigrants, but who also understands that to be a nation, we need to secure borders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Kennedy had previously signaled interest in picking a celebrity or a household name such as NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, \u201cDirty Jobs\u201d star Mike Rowe or former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who was a wrestler and actor.<\/p>\n According to campaign finance records, Shanahan has long donated to Democratic candidates, including giving the maximum amount allowed to Kennedy when he was still pursuing that party\u2019s nomination before\u00a0switching to an independent bid<\/a>\u00a0in October.<\/p>\n It was unclear if Shanahan would use her own money on the campaign, but she has already opened her wallet to back Kennedy.<\/p>\n She was a driving force and the primary donor behind\u00a0a Super Bowl ad<\/a>\u00a0produced by a pro-Kennedy super PAC, American Values 2024, for which she contributed $4 million. In response to criticism following the ad\u2019s release, the super PAC said its \u201cidea, funding, and execution came primarily\u201d from Shanahan.<\/p>\n The super PAC can accept unlimited funds but is legally barred from coordinating with Kennedy\u2019s team.<\/p>\n But as a candidate for vice president, Shanahan can give unlimited sums to the campaign directly. That\u2019s potentially a huge boost for Kennedy\u2019s expensive\u00a0push to get on the ballot<\/a>\u00a0in all 50 states, an endeavor he has said will cost $15 million and require collecting more than 1 million signatures.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Jonathan J. Cooper contributed from Oakland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nSubscribe to the new Fortune CEO Weekly Europe newsletter to get corner office insights on the biggest business stories in Europe. Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n