Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Running Mate, Nicole Shanahan, Donates $8 Million To Presidential Campaign: ‘Bobby Only Picked Me For My Money’

Nicole Shanahan, the running mate of the independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced that she had donated an additional $8 million to his presidential campaign.

Shanahan’s name started being mentioned as a potential running mate after she donated $4 million to the Kennedy-aligned super PAC earlier in 2024 to fund a Super Bowl commercial.

She officially joined the campaign in late March, with the independent presidential candidate announcing her hometown of Oakland, California. 

The running mate then stayed off the campaign trail for some time, only appearing at public events with Kennedy again starting last week.  

The $8 million donation brings up her total to the campaign to $10 million, not including the $4 million donation to the super PAC. 

Shanahan received over $1 billion from her divorce from Google founder Sergey Brin, who reportedly left her after she slept with Elon Musk. 

Shanahan announced her donation during a May 15 comedy show fundraiser at the Ryman Foundation in Nashville, Tennessee, featuring Russell Brand and Rob Schneider.

On May 16, the campaign revealed that its ballot access campaign was fully funded, thanks to Shanahan’s donations. 

During the event on Wednesday, Shanahan came onstage and nodded to the press.

“I think I know what they’re going to say – they’re going to say Bobby only picked me for my money,” she told the audience. 

The money is being used to acquire a spot on the ballot for the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket in every state. It is a significant undertaking as each state has its own rules, and most need a lot of signature-gathering. 

The campaign saidthat Kennedy’s name will be on the ballots in Utah, Michigan, California, Delaware, Oklahoma and Texas as of now. 

The campaign has acquired enough signatures on the ballots in New Hampshire, Hawaii, North Carolina, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio and Nevada. However, the Nevada signature-gathering process suffered a setback.

“This isn’t just about funding our campaign,” Shanahan mentioned in a press release. “We want to liberate presidential elections from the grip of the existing two-party duopoly and revitalize American democracy.”

“Nobody thinks the Democrat-Republican domination of our system is a good thing,” she added. “Since their candidates are so unpopular, this year is the perfect time to challenge it.”

According to a Federation Election Commission (FEC) filing, Kennedy raised over $7 million from October to December 2023.

The filing also mentions that the funds added to the nearly $6.1 million the campaign had in the bank when they entered the fourth quarter of 2023. The campaign spent almost $7.8 million during that time frame, which left Kennedy with $5.4 million in cash.

The independent candidate had $6.1 million in cash at the end of September 2023.

Kennedy’s campaign had also received criticism for its donor base, with many who backed Republicans in previous elections donating to him. Critics asserted that these donors seek to use his candidacy to weaken President Joe Biden in the general election. 

Shanahan recently became a prominent critic of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Her position on IVF, which she describes as a “lie about women’s health,” sparked controversy earlier this year.