Peter Myers Digest: Nicole Shanahan and RFK jr will win the election

(1) Nicole Shanahan will free RFK jr from Wall St donors; she and Kennedy will win the election
(2) Campaign finance law allows Shanahan to pour unlimited $ into the campaign—WaPo
(3) Making our nation healthy again—SMH on Nicole Shanahan
(4) RFK jr wants her to be a champion for millennial and Gen-Z Americans—BBC
(5) Shanahan’s rumor-plagued personal life played a role in her rise to national attention—Hollywood Reporter

(1) Nicole Shanahan will free RFK jr from Wall St donors; they will win the election

– by Peter Gerard Myers, March 28, 2024

The media have already shown, in the last 24 hours, that they won’t be able to stay away from Nicole Shanahan.

She’s young, not a politician, not corrupt, not beholden to Big Pharma or the Jewish Lobby, and offers hope to younger generations.

She and RFK jr will win the hearts and the votes of Democrats. Democrat voters have broken from the Jewish Lobby, regard Biden as senile, and would only vote for him to stop Trump.

Sceptics argue that Shanahan and Kennedy will take votes from Biden and help Trump win.

BUT Americans are fed up with the Corruption of their political system—the way that Donors are able to buy candidates and have their policies enacted over the wishes of the people. The Baltimore Bridge disaster examplifies the need for infrastructure spending, whereas the Elite have been spending the money on wars (Ukraine, Gaza).

In coming months, Kennedy and Shanahan will get onto the ballot in all states, and will overtake Biden in the polls. Once they are ahead of Biden, the contest will be between Kennedy and Trump.

Trump’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza disqualifies him from the Presidency.

Up until now, Kennedy has been cowardly on the Gaza issue, probably because he needed money from Jewish Donors. Now, he is free from that constraint.

(2) Campaign finance law allows Shanahan to pour unlimited $ into the campaign—WaPo

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/27/rfk-jr-running-mate-nicole-shanahan-money-vice-president/

Kennedy picked running mate Nicole Shanahan for one big reason: Money

By Karen Tumulty

Associate editor and columnist
|
March 27, 2024 at 4:39 p.m. EDT

To paraphrase the memorable words of a notable figure who once ran for vice president on a third-party ticket: Who is she? Why is she here?

With apologies to Adm. James Stockdale, a man with a distinguished military career who lightheartedly posed those questions about himself as Ross Perot’s running mate during his opening statement at the 1992 vice-presidential debate, they are worth asking in all seriousness about the selection that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday.

Kennedy’s pick for the vice-presidential spot on his ticket is Nicole Shanahan, a 38-year-old philanthropist and tech entrepreneur who has never run for office before. At the rally in Oakland at which he introduced her, Kennedy described Shanahan as “my fellow lawyer, a brilliant scientist, technologist, a fierce warrior mom.”

“I need someone with a spiritual dimension and compassion and idealism and, above all, a deep love for the United States of America,” Kennedy added.

Whatever Shanahan’s other virtues, the most important reason for her selection is that she is worth a fortune as the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who ranks as the 10th richest person in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Their 2023 divorce settlement is confidential, but the Wall Street Journal reported that she was seeking more than $1 billion.

Now that Shanahan is on the ticket with Kennedy, campaign finance law allows her to pour unlimited amounts of money into his campaign — something he badly needs. His campaign treasury is running low, with just over $5 million cash on hand reported in its latest federal filing, and qualifying for a spot on state ballots across the country is an expensive proposition. Candidates must have the resources to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures.

So far, Kennedy, who is polling in the low double digits nationally, has only made it onto only one ballot: Utah’s. Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing him of violating the law by relying upon a supposedly independent super PAC to do the legwork for his campaign.

Shanahan was already a major donor to that super PAC, American Values 2024. She chipped in $4 million to help pay for a bizarre 30-second Super Bowl spot that manipulated footage from a famous ad that his uncle John F. Kennedy had run during the 1960 campaign.

The Super Bowl commercial drew protests from some of his relatives, many of whom have spoken out against Kennedy for spreading conspiracy theories and misinformation about vaccines. In a subsequent post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Kennedy distanced himself from the ad and apologized for it, writing: “I’m so sorry if the Super Bowl advertisement caused anyone in my family pain. The ad was created and aired by the American Values Super PAC without any involvement or approval from my campaign. FEC rules prohibit Super PACs from consulting with me or my staff.”

There’s no conceivable scenario in which Kennedy might actually win the election. No third-party candidate has won even a single state since 1968, when segregationist George Wallace carried five in the South — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi — and got 46 electoral votes.

But given how close the margins are likely to be in a handful of key states in 2024, it is easy to imagine that Kennedy or other third-party contenders could sap enough votes to act as a spoiler.

What’s generally assumed is that President Biden is the major-party contender most likely to be hurt by Kennedy, but there is evidence that presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump also stands to lose votes to him in some places. A recent Fox News survey in Pennsylvania, for instance, showed Trump two percentage points ahead of Biden in a two-man race but tied when the names of Kennedy and two other independent contenders, Jill Stein and Cornel West, were added to the poll question.

“Our campaign is a spoiler. I agree with that. It is a spoiler for President Biden and for President Trump,” Kennedy has said.

In 2016, Green Party candidate Stein got enough votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to arguably tip those states — and hand the election — to Trump. “We learned after 2016 that we can’t ignore third parties,” noted Lis Smith, who is advising the Democratic National Committee’s effort against third-party candidates.

But Shanahan’s selection could complicate things. “She was picked for one reason and one reason only: the money,” Smith told me.

In a February interview with my colleague Michael Scherer, Shanahan said she still considered herself “a massive Democratic Party supporter” who had initially been concerned when Kennedy abandoned what had been a bid for the Democratic nomination in October to mount an independent candidacy. “I had real concerns what that could do to the election,” she said.

But, eventually, “it became apparent to me that there’s a lot more silent support for RFK than I could have ever imagined,” Shanahan said.

She might be right, and if her money puts him on more ballots, it will be silent no more.

(3) Making our nation healthy again—SMH on Nicole Shanahan

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/robert-f-kennedy-jnr-picks-nicole-shanahan-as-his-running-mate-for-white-house-bid-20240327-p5ffj3.html

RFK jnr picks Nicole Shanahan, Sergey Brin’s ex-wife, as running mate

By Jonathan J. Cooper

Updated March 27, 2024 — 9.39amfirst published at 6.45am

Washington: Robert F Kennedy jnr has chosen Nicole Shanahan to be his vice presidential pick as he mounts an independent White House bid that has spooked national Democrats.

Shanahan, 38, the former wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is a California lawyer and philanthropist who has never held elected office. Shanahan leads Bia-Echo Foundation, an organisation she founded to direct money towards issues including women’s reproductive science, criminal justice reform and environmental causes.

“Nicole and I both left the Democratic Party,” Kennedy, the nephew of former president John F Kennedy and son of ex-attorney-general Robert Kennedy, said. “Our values didn’t change. The Democratic Party did.”

“I’m so proud to introduce to you the next vice president of the United States, my fellow lawyer, a brilliant scientist, technologist, a fierce warrior mom, Nicole Shanahan,” Kennedy said.

Shanahan was introduced via a video that touched on her tough upbringing in Oakland, her father’s substance abuse, her success at Stanford University and the moment when she discovered her young child suffered from autism.

Brin broke off a long friendship with Tesla founder Elon Musk over Musk’s romantic relationship with Shanahan, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2022. Musk and Shanahan both denied such a relationship.

Shanahan said she was drawn to Kennedy in part because of their shared commitment to health.

“There is no other candidate for president who takes the chronic disease epidemic as seriously as Robert F. Kennedy jnr and I will be his ally in making our nation healthy again,” she said.

She said she blamed environmental causes for America’s poor health, citing pollution in waterways, electromagnetic waves in mobile phones and “poisons” in America’s food supply chain and medicines.

Without the backing of a party, Kennedy faces an arduous task to be included on the ballot, with varying rules across the 50 states. He’s picking a running mate now because about half of the states require him to designate one before he can apply for ballot access.

Kennedy began his campaign as a primary challenge to Biden but later said he’d run as an independent instead.

He was a teenager when his father, known as RFK, was assassinated during his presidential campaign in 1968. He built a reputation of his own as an activist, author and lawyer who fought for environmental causes such as clean water.

Along the way, activism has veered into conspiracies and contradicted scientific consensus, most infamously on vaccines. Some members of his family have publicly criticised his views. Dozens of Kennedy family members sent a message when they posed with Biden at a St Patrick’s Day reception at the White House in a photo his sister Kerry Kennedy posted to social media.

An anti-vaccine group Kennedy led has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organisations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by acting to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines.

Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

He is leveraging a network of loyal supporters built over years, many of them drawn to his anti-vaccine activism and his message that the US government is beholden to corporations.

The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, is gearing up to take on Kennedy and other third-party candidates. Many Democrats blame Green Party candidates for Al Gore’s loss to George W. Bush in 2000 and Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump in 2016.

Kennedy’s campaign has spooked Democrats, who fear it could draw support from President Joe Biden and help Trump.

Kennedy is backed by 15 per cent of registered voters, versus 39 per cent for Biden and 38 per cent for Trump, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.

AP, Reuters

(4) RFK jr wants her to be a champion for millennial and Gen-Z Americans—BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68621617

RFK Jr picks California lawyer Nicole Shanahan as his running mate

By Samantha Granville,
BBC News, Los Angeles

US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has announced Silicon Valley lawyer and philanthropist Nicole Shanahan as his running mate.

Ms Shanahan, 38, the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, has never before run for political office.

Mr Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist and scion of America’s most famous political dynasty, is running as an independent.

Naming a VP pick is a prerequisite to be on the ballot in a number of states.

The Kennedy campaign has ruffled Democrats, who are concerned about its spoiler potential on President Joe Biden’s re-election chances.

On Tuesday Mr Kennedy embraced that label, calling his campaign “a spoiler for President Biden and for President Trump” that will “forge an unstoppable coalition of homeless Democrats and homeless Republicans”.

The Democratic National Committee has recently stepped up attacks on Mr Kennedy, arguing that his longshot third-party bid will only end up helping to elect the Republican candidate, Donald Trump.

Ms Shanahan was unveiled on Tuesday by Mr Kennedy at a rally in Oakland, California, where he described her as a “fellow lawyer, a brilliant scientist, technologist, a fierce warrior mom”.

She has previously been a longtime Democratic donor and has already donated to Mr Kennedy’s campaign. She said in her remarks that she was leaving the Democratic Party, because it had “lost its way” by focusing on “elitism” and “winning at all costs”.

“I believe I am taking the best ideals and impulses with me,” she said.

Mr Kennedy, 70, described his new running mate as someone with a deep inside knowledge of Big Tech, which he depicted as a threat to democracy.

He told the crowd he picked a younger running mate partly because he wants her to be a champion for millennial and Gen-Z Americans. He said those generations had lost hope for their future and no longer believe the political establishment has their best interests at heart.

Mr Kennedy was introduced at the event by his wife, Cheryl Hines, the star of HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Mr Kennedy previously challenged Mr Biden for the Democratic party’s nomination, before launching an independent bid last October.

Naming Ms Shanahan as his vice-presidential nominee will help his campaign clear the way for ballot access in many US states and Washington DC. …

Ms Shanahan’s humble origins will serve as a contrast to Mr Kennedy and his famous political family.

The daughter of a Chinese immigrant mother and a white father, she grew up in Oakland and was raised on food stamps, a federal subsidy that helps low-income families buy groceries.

She’s previously recalled her childhood as being filled with fear and instability because of her dad’s schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Ms Shanahan has supported criminal justice reform, affordable housing and efforts to fight climate change and to increase access to mental health treatment.

She is the founder and president of Bia-Echo Foundation, a charitable organisation focused on fertility and human health. …

“Don’t undersell someone who comes from outside a system to change the system,” Bruce Cahan, a professional colleague, said. …

(5) Shanahan’s rumor-plagued personal life played a role in her rise to national attention—Hollywood Reporter

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/who-is-nicole-shanahan-rfk-1235861606/

Who Is Nicole Shanahan, RFK Jr.’s Pick for Vice President?

The possible billionaire philanthropist officially broke from the Democratic Party on Tuesday as she was added to the independent candidate’s ticket.

BY KEVIN DOLAK

MARCH 27, 2024 1:59PM

The first major running mate announcement of the 2024 presidential election cycle came much earlier than usual this week, as White House hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held an Oakland rally to make the big announcement, concluding weeks of speculation by introducing the young political neophyte to the nation and revealing that he may just have found the ideal addition to his long-shot ticket.

Nicole Shanahan — criminal justice attorney, Silicon Valley philanthropist, possible billionaire divorcée — is a native of Oakland who may just have the ideal rags-to-riches backstory for a political newcomer. Shanahan has spoken about growing up with a family that relied on food benefits and being raised by a schizophrenic father who had lifelong addiction issues. On Tuesday, she told the crowd of her days as an attorney, after completing a law degree a decade ago at Santa Clara University School of Law, working with artificial intelligence to push for criminal justice reform and end the school-to-prison pipeline for Black men.

Unmentioned at Tuesday’s event were the details of Shanahan’s rumor-plagued personal life, which no doubt played a role in her rise to national attention and becoming a vice presidential candidate. Her second marriage in 2018 was to one of the world’s richest men, Google co-founder Sergey Brin; the four-year union with the tech titan, during which the couple had a daughter, ended with reports of an affair between her and the world’s (sometimes) richest man, Elon Musk, a longtime friend of Brin — both Musk and Shanahan have denied that this alleged tryst ever occurred.

Shanahan made a case for herself to RFK Jr. loyalists via talking points near and dear to the candidate: the chronic disease epidemic; the “corporate capture of our regulatory agencies”; the nation’s children, who she says are “not well” after “one shot on top of another shot,” a light reference to the MMR vaccine’s bogus link to autism, a false theory that was built on a lie and which her running mate has repeated for years.

Little was said that detailed Shanahan’s impressive amount of experience, which includes seats on multiple boards of directors, launching legal tech company ClearAccessIP and the private foundation Bia-Echo, and her growing list of strategic philanthropic gifts. Despite all of this before the age of 40, she is primarily discussed in regard to the reason for and terms of her divorce, with some speculating that the case settled with her walking away with $1 billion. …

“If you ever considered an independent ticket … listen to Bobby Kennedy in his own words,” she said. “Take a look at his vision for America. It’s a vision that I share too, as I spend the next seven months of my life getting him on each and every ballot in this country.”