Vice Presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan speaks during a rally for Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on May 13, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
Sergio Flores | AFP | Getty Images
The independent presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering abandoning his quest for the White House to “join forces” with Republican nominee Donald Trump, Kennedy’s running mate Nicole Shanahan says in a new interview posted online Tuesday.
Shanahan also said the campaign also is considering remaining in the contest to try to win more than 5% of the popular vote and “establish ourselves” as a third-party alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties, and build on that ballot access for the 2028 election.
“There’s two options that we’re looking at and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump, or we draw somehow more votes from Trump,” Shanahan said in the interview on the Impact Theory podcast.
“Or we walk away right now and join forces with … Donald Trump and you know, we walk away from that and explain to our base why we’re making this decision,” Shanahan told interviewer Tom Bilyeu.
“Not easy, not an easy decision,” the attorney and entrepreneur added.
If Kennedy and Shanahan quit the election contest, it is not clear if their would-be voters would necessarily go to Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.
But some polls suggest that the Democratic nominee, Vice President Harris, would be stronger against Trump in swing states when Kennedy is included as a candidate, as opposed to when Kennedy is not an option.
Earlier in the interview, Shanahan said, “I did not put in tens of millions of dollars to be a spoiler candidate.”
“I put in tens of millions of dollars to win, to fix this country, to do the right thing,” she said. “We don’t want to be a spoiler.”
“We wanted to win. We wanted a fair shot,” Shanahan added.
Bilyeu in a post on X said the interview was filmed Monday.
A spokeswoman for Kennedy’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Shanahan’s interview, which comes days before Harris is set to formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Kennedy last year abandoned his efforts to win the Democratic nomination.
His late father, New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in June 1968 after winning the Democratic presidential primary in California.
Kennedy’s campaign claims it has collected enough signatures to secure a ballot line on all 50 states. But a judge last week ruled that he cannot appear on the ballot in New York because his claim of residency in the state was a “sham.”
Kennedy is appealing that ruling, but at the same time is fighting efforts in the key swing states of Georgia and Pennsylvania, as well as several other states, to remove him from ballots there.
This is developing news. Check back for updates.
