RFK Jr. running mate donating $8M to campaign

Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr.’s running mate has boosted the duo’s war chest once again, donating $8 million to the campaign to bolster ballot access in the lead-up to November. 

Attorney Nicole Shanahan, whom Kennedy picked as his vice president in March, gave another $8 million last month to assist the campaign’s efforts in getting on the ballot in all 50 states. 

The Silicon Valley attorney announced the donation while speaking at a comedy show in Tennessee on Wednesday night. 

“This isn’t just about funding our own campaign,” she said in a statement following the Tennessee fundraising event, which was hosted at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. “We want to liberate presidential elections from the grip of the existing two-party duopoly, and revitalize American democracy.”

Shanahan, who has slowly ramped up her campaigning, previously donated $2 million to the campaign just one day after being tapped by Kennedy in late March. Candidates can contribute unlimited amounts to their campaign coffers under current federal election laws and do not have to abide by the $6,600 individual limits.

She has previously supported Kennedy’s White House bid with direct campaign donations, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, and also gave $4 million to help fund the Super Bowl ad released by American Values 2024, an outside group backing the independent candidate. 

Kennedy’s independent campaign intends to be on the ballot in all 50 states before Election Day and hopes to have its candidate on the debate stage with President Biden and former President Trump. 

Kennedy decried being excluded from this week’s debate conversation, arguing the development “undermines democracy.” 

His campaign said it has collected enough signatures to be on the ballot in 14 states, so far. 

“The expense of ballot access — in both time and treasure — is one of the establishment’s most powerful cudgels against independent political thought,” campaign manager Amaryllis Kennedy said in a statement. “Americans demand and deserve an alternative to the broken status quo. We are thrilled to put these funds to work crossing the finish line in all 50 states plus DC.”