Kennedy’s new running mate will broaden appeal

• Published date: 28 March 2024
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

Shanahan (38) was formerly married to Google co-founder Sergei Brin. She was described by Kennedy as someone “who overcame every daunting obstacle to achieve the highest level of the American dream”

The location of the announcement, in Shanahan’s native Oakland, took Kennedy back to the historic 1968 Democratic primary undertaken by his father, Robert Kennedy, which ended with his assassination in Los Angeles that June.

Now, his son, who turned 70 in January, has tapped into that fabled summer by recalling an unscheduled visit his father made to an Oakland church with the then Raiders star Willie Brown. Kennedy was accompanied by John Glenn, the astronaut and one of his best friends.

“The meeting was so rancorous and vitriolic that at one point they advised my father to leave,” Kennedy jnr told the crowd. “People were insulting him. People were threatening him. My dad refused. And he heard them out. And the next day all the people at that meeting signed up to join his campaign. It’s a lesson we need to learn at this point in our history. We need to start listening to each other even when it’s difficult. We need to start coming back to one another as Americans again.”

Kennedy is positioning himself as a unifying figure unblemished by major party loyalties in a political era defined by the poisonous, mutual contempt exhibited by the Democratic and Republican parties and the national lack of enthusiasm for the returning candidates, President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump.

Shanahan, he told the crowd, fitted his criteria as a potential vice-president “who shares my indignation about the participation of big tech as a partner in the censorship and the surveillance and information warfare that our government is currently waging against the American people.

“I want a partner with strong ideas about how to reverse those dire threats to democracy and to our freedoms,” he continued before outlining his running mate’s achievements as an environmentalist and lawyer.

Shanahan’s mother emigrated from Guangzhou city, in China, in the 1980s. Her father struggled to find work and in an interview with People magazine, Shanahan recalled the reality of life in Oakland.

“I grew up in a single parent household. My mother raised my brother and I. We were low income and on welfare.”

Speaking at the launch of her campaign, she...