Vice presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan speaks at a rally for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Austin, Texas, on May 13, 2024.
Sergio Flores | AFP | Getty Images
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign is considering abandoning his quest for the White House to “unite” with Republican nominee Donald Trump, Kennedy’s running mate Nicole Shanahan said in a new interview posted online Tuesday.
Shanahan also said he was considering staying in the race to win more than 5 percent of the vote and “establish ourselves” as a third-party alternative to Republicans and Democrats, and to expand that vote in the 2028 election.
“There are two options we are considering. One is to stay in office and form a new party. But that risks Kamala Harris and Walz becoming president. “Either we’re getting votes out of Trump, or we’re getting more votes out of Trump,” Shanahan said in an interview on the “Influence Theory” podcast.
“Or we can walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump. You know, we can walk away and explain to our base why we made this decision,” Shanahan told interviewer Tom Bilyeu.
“It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t an easy decision,” the lawyer and entrepreneur added.
When asked by Billie E. whether she would run for governor of California, where she lives, if Kennedy and her campaign were over, Shanahan said, “I would consider running.”
“I want to get involved in California,” she said.
If Kennedy and Shanahan drop out of the race, it’s unclear whether their voters will necessarily vote for Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
However, some polls show that if Kennedy were included in the race, Democratic nominee Vice President Harris would do better than Trump in the states where she is strong. But if Kennedy were not included in the race, that would not be the case.
“I didn’t invest tens of millions of dollars to become a spoiler candidate,” Shanahan said early in the interview.
“I invested tens of millions of dollars to win, to fix this country, to do the right thing,” she said. “We don’t want to be the obstructionists.”
“We wanted to win. We wanted a fair chance,” Shanahan added.
In a post on X, Billie Eilish revealed that the interview was filmed on Monday.
When asked to comment on Shanahan’s interview, Kennedy’s campaign referred CNBC to Kennedy’s new tweet.
“As always, I am willing to engage with leaders of all parties to advance the goals I have pursued throughout my 40-year career and throughout this campaign,” Kennedy wrote.
“These are things that will reverse the chronic disease epidemic, end the war machine, remove corporate influence from our government, clean toxic pollution from our environment, protect a free press, and end the politicization of our executive branch,” Kennedy said.
“Nicole Shanahan no longer pretends to be a serious vice presidential candidate,” Democratic spokeswoman Reese Smith said in a statement.
“In a single interview, she endorsed RFK Jr. as HHS secretary in the Trump administration, announced her intention to run for California governor in 2026, conceded that the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign had no chance of winning and raised the possibility of teaming up with Trump to defeat Vice President Harris,” Smith said.
“We’ve been saying since the beginning of this race that RFK Jr. is nothing but a distraction for Donald Trump, and we’re glad his running mate is finally admitting it.”
Shanahan’s interview came days before Harris formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago alongside her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Kennedy abandoned his bid for the Democratic nomination last year.
His father, New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in June 1968 after winning the California Democratic presidential primary.
Kennedy’s campaign claims it has collected enough signatures to line up on ballots in all 50 states, but a judge ruled last week that he can’t appear on the ballot in New York because his claim of residency there is “false.”
Kennedy is appealing the ruling, but is also fighting efforts to keep him off the ballot in key battleground states such as Georgia and Pennsylvania, as well as several other states.
