RFK Jr. Running Mate Unboxing: It's Sergey Brin's ex wife / Elon Musk paramour Nicole Shanahan

[Redban]

I heard through my patent law circles that RPX Corp.'s HR department put out an APB to its male executives to be alert and stay away from Shanahan as she was a serial seducer and was having many affairs with executives in the patent law industry. My boss did a patent deal with her and said she is as crazy as reported in the news.

“Heels up Harris” is immediately infracted and labeled as misogynistic on this site. But this post is fine. Please make that make sense

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Dud after all the Aaron Rodgers and Ventura talk as I said it doesn't change the race

He needs to be at Biden not Trump and he is polling low

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

It could've been Ventura, it could've been Tulsi, it could've been Rodgers, it could've been Tony freaking Robbins. Instead it's whoever this is.

Even by RFK Jr. standards, this is sorely disappointing.

[Arizona Iced Tea]

What a joke done by RFK. He could have picked Aaron Rodgers and made some headway but he picked a liberal and basically ruined his chances with conservative independents. The reason he is polling so high is because Trump and Biden are just that bad to the vast majority of Americans.

[AltWorlder]

He chose her because she has the deepest pockets, probably.

https://twitter.com/GregTSargent/status/1772652450064867614
https://twitter.com/GregTSargent/status/1772655301818273932
https://twitter.com/GregTSargent/status/1772659543127777654

Ventura, Tulsi, Rodgers would not be able to pay for ballot access like Shanahan could.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

The pick is strange, yes, we can all agree to that, but I’m a little concerned by the amount of people on here (which is 2 at the moment) who are implying that Aaron Rodger’s would’ve been a good choice.

[Arizona Iced Tea]

The pick is strange, yes, we can all agree to that. But I’m a little concerned by the amount of people on here (which is 2 at the moment) that who are implying that Aaron Rodger’s, of all people, would’ve been a good choice.

Is Aaron Rodgers qualified for VP? Absolutely not. But RFK isn't trying to win, he's trying to make a statement. There is nothing more American than Kennedy and above average NFL quaterback, and he would have gotten a lot more buzz and coverage. Especially with most Americans disliking Trump and Biden a lot it would have been very refreshing to many.

[AltWorlder]

If Aaron Rodgers can't pay for them to even get on the ballot, then he's not as useful as Nicole Shanahan. On the other hand, if she has far less popular, then she won't get votes even if they do have ballot access.

Chicken and egg problem. If natural-born citizen wasn't a restriction then Elon Musk might've been the ideal running mate.

[Rat]

Is Aaron Rodgers qualified for VP? Absolutely not. But RFK isn't trying to win, he's trying to make a statement.

I disagree, I think he is actively trying to win. What "statement" do you think he's trying to make?

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

this feels like one of those joke VP picks you get in the Campaign Trail scenarios.

Also, yeah, his most diehard base which follows the conspiracy theorist s**t is not gonna be happy with this. Though, most of the people saying they'll vote for him in polls are low info or apathetic/don't like either candidate, so this probably won't have the hugest impact.

[Holmes]

No offense (well maybe some) but literally who

[AGA]

I was open to voting for RFK Jr., but not anymore. What was he thinking? He's getting clowned on in his X replies right now.

[AltWorlder]

She can pay to get them on ballots in states that all of the other alternatives' popularity could not have gotten them on, are you guys unable to read my posts or something

[Neo-Malthusian Misanthrope]

Shanahan seems so anathema to RFK's base (to the extent that he has a base) that even if she helps him with ballot access, it'll be a net negative for him. And this doesn't seem like the start of a pivot to appeal to the general public, if that whole announcement was anything to go by.

[AltWorlder]

I actually agree with that assessment, thank you for actually engaging with a potential reason for the pick and providing a critique rather than throwing up your hands and going "bwuhh? Why he not pick meme man?"

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

I actually agree with that assessment, thank you for actually engaging with a potential reason for the pick and providing a critique rather than throwing up your hands and going "bwuhh? Why he not pick meme man?"

I'll be honest, altworlder, the immature and mean kid in me was tempted to post "WTF?? Can anyone explain why he would pick her??" just to make you mad

(Sorry.)

Seriously though, it will be interesting to see the push and pull between the benefits of her wealth vs. the generally negative response to him picking her (at least for now).  I haven't too many of his supporters who are absolutely thrilled with the selection. 

[TheTide]

Wow, RFK sounds terrible. Makes Biden look like an Obama-tier orator in comparison.

Pretty classic spasmodic dysphonia. 

I think Susan Collins has it too, albeit in a milder form. In both of their cases it struck when they were relatively young. There's a lot of elderly people who sound like they have it but in fact it is (in almost all cases) simply 'old voice'.

[AltWorlder]

It's okay, I got my fill of screaming into the ether now.

And this doesn't seem like the start of a pivot to appeal to the general public, if that whole announcement was anything to go by.

I looked back at ettingermentum's RFK Jr. VP tier list, and he actually placed Shanahan at a B, because according to him, she's a liberal, unlike most of the other potentials:

I will be honest: I had not heard of this woman until Mediaite broke a story during the writing of this article saying that she was Kennedy’s likely choice. Since she had never been a subject of speculation in the articles written about Kennedy’s veepstakes or expressed any interest in any political position in the past, this came totally out of left field, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it. On one hand, I really dislike it as a commentator. Shanahan is unknown, pretty boring, and deeply involved in the incestuous San Francisco tech social world that I have absolutely no interest in. But as it concerns Kennedy’s campaign, I don’t entirely hate her selection. She’s very much an unknown, yes, but I’m not entirely sure how much Kennedy needs someone who would make a big splash—his last name does enough work for him. She’s also dull, but in comparison to some of the other members on this list, that may be an asset. If forced to choose between a news cycle about how your running mate is associated with Sandy Hook denial and a news cycle about how your running mate had relationships with a lot of billionaires, I’m sure that Kennedy, along with most people, would choose the latter.

The only truly interesting part of Shanahan as a potential member of Kennedy’s ticket is that she represented the left side of his candidacy far more than anyone on this list. Unlike Rogan, who gave Kennedy a dual endorsement with Ron DeSantis, or Schneider and Paul, who both have been outright Republicans, Shanahan is a fairly mainstream Democrat. She calls herself a “progressive through-and-through,” donated to Biden in 2020, and was reportedly a strong force in favor of Kennedy remaining in the Democratic primary. When asked about her support of him following her funding of that Super Bowl ad, she emphasized his commitment on environmental issues while going out of her way to stress that she wasn’t an “anti-vaxxer”—both themes that Kennedy would be wise to focus on himself over the coming months.

For as lame as this pick sounded to me when I first read about it in the Mediaite piece, the more I think about it, the less I hate it. At worst, it’s a do-no-harm selection that leaves him in about the same place where he began. At best, she could portend a more mature, and far more appealing, turn for his ticket. If this selection does come to pass, any figures within the two major parties who were hoping Kennedy could destroy his own campaign from the jump with an atrocious VP pick will likely end up disappointed.

It's an interesting point, but I actually disagree with it. I think uniquely, RFK Jr. acts as the inverse of Trump: when Trump makes the odd leftish populist statement, his base glosses over it. When RFK Jr. appeals to the right-wing with border hawkery, whatever anti-vaxx far leftist Green supporters he has don't seem to be phased by it. So there's no real use to him trying to appeal to mainstream Dems with Shanahan, especially since her being a Big Tech divorcee doesn't really appeal in that way. Any Democrats who are into Kennedy are already in it for the sake of anti-establishmentarianism (which she does not represent), or for Camelot nostalgia.

Also, as you pointed out, the content of the rally does not seem to be Kennedy moving towards mainstream liberal positions.

[The Mikado]

this feels like one of those joke VP picks you get in the Campaign Trail scenarios.

Also, yeah, his most diehard base which follows the conspiracy theorist s**t is not gonna be happy with this. Though, most of the people saying they'll vote for him in polls are low info or apathetic/don't like either candidate, so this probably won't have the hugest impact.

Campaign Trail can't really model "has enough money to singlehandedly fund the campaign" very well.

She's going to be toxic to a certain core RFK Jr demo but otoh if the goal is to have a well-funded campaign where RFK Jr can put all his friends and hangers-on as "consultants" at 18k a month salaries and campaign "trips" to Jackson Hole and Aspen and the Hamptons, then this is perfect.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Can we just acknowledge for a moment how unserious someone should be taken if this is what makes them no longer take RFK Jr. as a credible candidate? Him considering Aaron Rosgers didn't already make that clear? Let alone him running for President at all?

All that aside, it's a pretty terrible choice all around. A literal who that becomes a literal what when you read about her.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

this feels like one of those joke VP picks you get in the Campaign Trail scenarios.

Also, yeah, his most diehard base which follows the conspiracy theorist s**t is not gonna be happy with this. Though, most of the people saying they'll vote for him in polls are low info or apathetic/don't like either candidate, so this probably won't have the hugest impact.

Campaign Trail can't really model "has enough money to singlehandedly fund the campaign" very well.

She's going to be toxic to a certain core RFK Jr demo but otoh if the goal is to have a well-funded campaign where RFK Jr can put all his friends and hangers-on as "consultants" at 18k a month salaries and campaign "trips" to Jackson Hole and Aspen and the Hamptons, then this is perfect.

I suppose the only thing I can think of like that is Alton Parker’s VP choice, whose name I can’t even think of.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

She is impressive but to move votes he needed a politician, all he does of Trump wins is taking votes from Biden that's why Redban likes him so much and no one else does

It's so funny because people actually thought Rodgers was gonna be named Veep

[Sir Mohamed]

Joke selection by a joke candidate.

[Eraserhead]

The fact that this guy is polling as well as he is tells you a lot about the state of American politics.

I guess most people don't know about him other than he's a Kennedy (even though is entire family backs Biden). And there's a decent junk of voters outside partisan Democrats and Republicans with a low appetite for a rematch. Nonetheless, I doubt he finishes above two or three percent of the vote (hopefully he gets out of the race before the election).

He's going to take more from Trump than Biden in the end so I wouldn't worry about it.

[Redban]

https://nypost.com/2024/03/27/opinion/rfk-jr-s-progressive-vp-pick-nicole-shanahan-will-doom-bidens-re-election/

RFK Jr.’s progressive VP pick Nicole Shanahan will doom Biden’s re-election

On Tuesday, Kennedy made himself more lethal to Biden by naming as his running mate the well-divorced California attorney and tech investor Nicole Shanahan.

Shanahan, who calls herself a “progressive through and through,” is the radical-left millennial ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who divorced her after she was rumored to have had an affair with Elon Musk. (Shanahan and Musk deny it.)
...
For most of her adult life, Shanahan has contributed to radical-left causes and candidates that have brought California to utter ruin.

She donated $700,000 to support Measure J, a post-George Floyd Los Angeles County criminal justice initiative that defunded law enforcement and diverted local revenue to “alternatives to incarceration.”

We all know how well that turned out.

She gave $150,000 to support George Gascón’s 2020 bid for LA district attorney despite his disastrous record in the same job in San Francisco.

...
Lest anyone think Shanahan is truly “independent,” she donated $25,000 to Biden’s 2020 victory fund after having initially supported Pete Buttigieg and Marianne Williamson for that year’s Democratic nomination.