OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has secured a pick for running mate, an attorney and businesswoman from the San Francisco Bay Area, who will join him in his presidential bid as a third party candidate.
Now running for president under his We the People party after dropping out of the Democratic primary in October 2023, Kennedy announced Nicole Shanahan as his pick for running mate on Tuesday during an event at Oakland’s historic Henry J. Kaiser center, briefly reopened during renovations.
"I wanted someone that is battle-tested ... and I wanted a young person," Kennedy said of Shanahan, an Oakland native, patent attorney and graduate of Silicon Valley's Santa Clara Law School.
Kennedy said Shanahan echoes his values on agriculture, regulatory capture and the environment. He also emphasized her experience in artificial intelligence. Shanahan is the founder of artificial intelligence patent tool company ClearAccess IP and is president of the Bia-Echo Foundation, which invests in criminal justice reform and “reproductive longevity and equality,” according to its website.
Kennedy also told attendees of the event the We the People party is designed for independents who may agree on some political issues and disagree on others.
“We need to sit with each other and listen to our anger and those feelings,” Kennedy said. “We need to listen to each other and not walk away.”
Kennedy has positioned himself as an alternative for former Democrats who are suspicious of the government and corporations managing agriculture and pharmaceuticals, including Pfizer and Monsanto. Riding on his experience as an environmental attorney, he said to Tuesday's crowd that his most recent visits to Oakland were to battle environmental lawsuits in court, including a stint serving as a trial attorney in two Monsanto trials handled in the city.
However, the candidate has proven himself to be a controversial figure in the 2024 presidential election, in part due to his statements about vaccines attacking the public health community’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and his association with influential right wingers.
On Tuesday, hundreds of Kennedy's supporters entered the auditorium, according to varying headcounts from volunteers. Some wore merchandise with Kennedy's face, or green hats with the phrase “Make Earth Great Again.”
San Francisco peninsula resident Elissa Hirsh said she thinks Kennedy is “miles ahead” of other presidential candidates, and that she believes FDA-approved vaccines are “toxic” and part of a “pharmaceutical scam.”
“The existing parties are not dealing with most of the issues that are really pressing,” she said. “I was a Democrat progressive, but I feel like my party left me. They no longer exemplify the values that caused me to register Democrat.”
Santa Clara resident Marek Kryda said he thinks the candidate can convince voters with his stance on protecting the environment from corporations.
“He’s spent his whole life in courts, winning the cases,” Kryda said. “I think we should remember the past, which is 30 years of activism. He’s very effective.”
Duncan MacLaren, a former University of California, Los Angeles molecular biology professor, said he came from Reno, Nevada and already made up his mind to vote for Kennedy.
“I found him to be correct on many things, even things I thought were nuts,” he said.
MacLaren said his wife has decided to vote for Joe Biden, but he thinks he can convince more people to vote for Kennedy if they watch videos with his messages. However, he said it can be hard for people to discern what is real online, citing artificial intelligence making it easier to make fake images seem real.
Another attendee, Oaklander Kofi Asante, said he remains unconvinced about joining the We the People party.
“I’m not about this Democratic or Republican party [choice],” he said. “The majority goes to either party. I may go independent.”
Kennedy’s announcement was treated as a campaign event, bookended by videos heavily relying on footage of the candidate's famous father, along with musical performances like Cat Stevens’ “Wild World.” For nearly two hours, speakers, including conservative personality Angela Stanton-King, spoke in support of Kennedy.
“Bobby’s pro-choice, I’m pro-life, and we don’t hate each other. We meet in the middle,” Stanton-King said.
Other speakers like Kelly Ryerson — known as "Glyphosate Girl" for her activism against agricultural contaminants in the food supply — said they support Kennedy for opposing "big pharma."
Several said that they opposed public health measures such as school closures during Covid-19 and said that the illness did not lead to deaths among “metabolically healthy people,” though this claim has been proven false in research performed since 2020.
Kennedy also won the endorsement of a local Native American tribe for saying he will support protection of land, air and water from pollution. Charlene Nijmeh, Chairwoman of the Muwekma Ohlone, and several of her council's members praised Kennedy and led the crowd in a traditional song.
Several speakers also repeatedly accused journalists of carrying out a “media blackout” in favor of other candidates while looking directly at the packed press box facing Kennedy’s stage.
In February, the Democratic National Committee filed a complaint against a Super PAC it accuses of illegal coordinating with Kennedy to support his White House bid, reflecting Democratic worry about third-party candidates potentially siphoning support away from President Joe Biden.
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