独立总统候选人小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪名叫妮可·沙纳汉作为他的竞选搭档。
沙纳汉是湾区一名38岁的律师和科技企业家。
专注于公共卫生的职业
沙纳汉在加州斯坦福大学获得法律学位，她帮助建立了多个关注人类和地球健康的组织——这一关注去年首次吸引她前往肯尼迪。
“我与我的基金会(Bia-Echo)和我的风险基金所做的许多工作都是围绕人类和地球健康进行的，”她最近告诉ABC新闻。“如果你看看我们的投资组合，就好像是，我们如何为女性的健康生育提供资金?我们如何不去执行这些最大化的公共卫生政策，而这些政策真的忘记了个人的重要性?因此，个性化医疗要求我们了解每个个体在其环境中反应的细微差别。”
她说:“我认为没有一个候选人比RFK谈论得更多。
沙纳汉于2018年与谷歌联合创始人谢尔盖·布林结婚。他们去年夏天离婚了。
“终身民主主义者”
沙纳汉告诉美国广播公司，她认为自己是“终身民主党人”，去年秋天肯尼迪退出党内初选以独立身份参选时，她最初感到失望。
“我不知道如何支持独立候选人。我从来没有做过，”她回忆起当时的想法。
她说她“担心(民主党全国委员会)”，声称该组织在“培养他们的核心价值观”方面“做得不好”，但补充说她希望该组织“能够扭转局面。”
她说，沙纳汉正在考虑在这个周期向选票较少的民主党人捐款，并特别提到伊利诺伊州众议员劳伦·安德伍德和加利福尼亚州众议员罗·卡纳。
她资助了支持小RFK·超级碗的广告
沙纳汉在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时表示，在今年的超级碗期间，他出资700万美元制作了这则广告，其中一半以上都是由他出资的。这则广告激怒了肯尼迪家族的几名成员。
她说她这样做是为了帮助证明“这场运动是不可行的”还是“相反，它是非常可行的。”
她说，“我认为在超级碗之后，(对肯尼迪竞选的支持)发生了重大转变。”
预测肯尼迪副总统将来自有健康背景的人
沙纳汉在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时表示，她“不知道”肯尼迪可能会选择谁。采访发生在任何竞选搭档候选人被报道之前。
“我相信他的直觉，”她说。“我知道他非常关心健康，并通过良好的公共政策从身体上治愈人们。因此，我相信他选择的副总统人选将来自这种背景，这是我的猜测。”
肯尼迪:如果沙纳汉不富裕，她“绝对”会考虑吗
肯尼迪考虑将沙纳汉作为他的竞选伙伴，这引发了人们的猜测，即他只是想利用她的财政资源来帮助他支付每个州的高额选票费用。
在一个3月18日采访肯尼迪与新闻国家的克里斯·科莫一起驳斥了这一假设，他说:“我永远不会根据副总统候选人拥有多少钱来选择他们。”
Who is Nicole Shanahan, RFK Jr.'s running mate?
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hasnamed Nicole Shanahanas his running mate.
Shanahan is a 38-year-old lawyer and tech entrepreneur in the Bay Area.
A career focused on public health
Shanahan, who earned a law degree from Stanford in California, has helped found multiple organizations focused on the health of humans and the planet -- a focus that first drew her to Kennedy last year.
"A lot of the work I do with my foundation [Bia-Echo] and my venture fund is around human and planetary health," she recently told ABC News. "If you look at our portfolio, it's kind of all like, how do we fund women's healthy fertility? How do we not just go to these maximalist public health policies that really forget the importance of the individual? So, personalized medicine requires us to understand the nuances of how each individual reacts in its environment."
"And I think that no candidate has talked about that more than RFK has," she said.
Shanahan married Google co-founder Sergey Brin in 2018. They divorced last summer.
A 'lifelong Democrat'
Shanahan told ABC she considers herself a "lifelong Democrat" who was initially disappointed when Kennedy removed himself from the party's primary last fall to run as an independent.
"I don't [know] how to support an independent candidate. I've never done it," she recalled thinking.
She said she was "concerned for the [Democratic National Committee]," claiming the group has not "been doing a good job" of "fostering their core values" but added she hopes the organization "can turn it around."
Shanahan is considering donating to down-ballot Democrats this cycle, she said, singling out Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood and California Rep. Ro Khanna.
She funded the pro-RFK Jr. Super Bowl ad
Shanahan bankrolled more than half of the $7 million used to create the ad that ran during this year's Super Bowl -- and angered several members of the Kennedy family, she told ABC News.
She said she did so to help prove whether "the campaign was unviable" or "the opposite, that it is very viable."
"I think there was a significant shift [in support for Kennedy's campaign] after" the Super Bowl, she said.
Predicted a Kennedy VP would come from someone with a background in health
In her conversation with ABC News, which took place before any running mate contenders had been reported, Shanahan said she had "no idea" who Kennedy might pick.
"I trust his instinct," she said. "I know he cares deeply about health and physically healing people through good public policies. And so, I believe that whoever he picks for VP will come from that background, is my guess."
Kennedy: Would 'absolutely' consider Shanahan if she weren’t wealthy
Kennedy's consideration of Shanahan as his running mate prompted speculation that he simply wanted to tap her financial resources to help him cover the high cost of ballot access in each state.
In aMarch 18 interviewwith NewsNation's Chris Cuomo, Kennedy rejected the premise, saying: "I would never choose a vice presidential candidate based on how much money that they have."
