Nicole Shanahan says she and RFK Jr. may drop out and endorse Trump

Joe Hernandez

August 21, 2024 / 9:54 am

caption: Nicole Shanahan appears on stage after presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces her as his running mate during a campaign event on March 26.

The running mate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is pursuing an independent bid for president, says the campaign is considering exiting the race and backing former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, in the November election.

Nicole Shanahan, a wealthy California attorney and Kennedy's pick for vice president, made the comments on an episode of the podcast Impact Theory posted Tuesday, as the campaign struggles with slumping poll numbers and lackluster fundraising.

"There's two options that we're looking at," Shanahan said. "One is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and [Tim] Walz presidency, because we draw votes from Trump or we draw somehow more votes from Trump. Or, we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump. We walk away from that and we explain to our base why we're making this decision."

Kennedy initially launched his campaign as a bid to challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination, but later announced he would run as an independent candidate.

Shanahan, whom Kennedy chose as his running mate in March, heads a charitable foundation and was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

The campaign did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment.

In recent months, Kennedy and Shanahan have struggled to raise money and get their names on the ballot in every state. Kennedy is down to 5% support in the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, from earlier this month, and his campaign hasn't held any recent public events.

Trump told CNN in an interview on Tuesday following Shanahan's comments that he would consider giving Kennedy a role in a potential second Trump administration if Kennedy dropped out and endorsed him.

"I like him, and I respect him," Trump told the outlet. "I didn't know he was thinking about getting out, but if he is thinking about getting out, certainly I'd be open to it."

In a post on X Tuesday, Kennedy said he is "willing to talk with leaders of any political party to further the goals I have served for 40 years in my career and in this campaign."