We all wished for a Kennedy who could run for president without getting shot and instead the cursed monkey’s paw gave us a Kennedy who wouldn’t get A shot in the form of noted anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. After getting immediately laughed out of Democratic Party contention, Kennedy launched a third-party bid to appeal to voters who “trust the science” on global warming and “to hell with the science” on vaccines causing autism. Niche demographic!
Kennedy’s wife has already had to issue a statement disavowing his remarks after he suggested COVID health restrictions were worse than Nazi Germany and he floated an interest in adding part-time QB and full-time loon Aaron Rodgers to the ticket before CNN linked Rodgers to troubling past Sandy Hook comments. But Kennedy did buy a Super Bowl ad to rehash his uncle’s 1960 campaign so he’s still improbably polling around 10 percent.
Perhaps owing to that ad’s success, reports surfaced over the weekend that one of the key folks behind getting that ad made has risen to the top of the RFK veepstakes.
Nicole Shanahan, a California lawyer who founded the legal tech startup ClearAccessIP back in 2013, is no stranger to the pages of Above the Law. Back in 2022, the Wall Street Journal claimed that Shanahan had an affair with Elon Musk, which she denied and her lawyer described as defamatory. We went further and mused that by 2022, the idea of having sex with Elon Musk might be defamatory per se.
Kennedy’s campaign manager issued what political types call a non-denial denial on X without a hint of irony:
She went on to gush about Shanahan’s work but also to throw in some plaudits for Rodgers, civil rights attorney (also known for anti-COVID mandate stances) Tricia Lindsay, and Mike Rowe, a professional opera singer who has somehow become an avatar for blue-collar workers.
The official announcement is slated for the 26th, though after that Tweet it’s hard to imagine the campaign will tab someone not on that list. On the other hand, nothing else about this campaign makes sense, so who knows?
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
