RFK Jr.'s campaign debates whether to drop out to boost Donald Trump's chances
Anadolu/Getty Images
- RFK Jr.'s VP pick, Nicole Shanahan, suggested the two may drop out to boost Donald Trump's chances.
- Shanahan said Kennedy risks tipping the election to Harris by pulling votes from Trump.
- Kennedy has reportedly done outreach to both campaigns to shop his endorsement.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign is debating whether to drop out of the 2024 election in order to help Donald Trump's chances of winning, his VP Nicole Shanahan said.
In an Tuesday interview on the podcast "Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu," Shanahan detailed the position her and RFK Jr. find themselves in.
"There's two options that we're looking at," Shanahan told Bilyeu in the episode. "One is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Waltz presidency because we draw votes from Trump or we draw somehow more votes from Trump. Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump."
She also said it could benefit her and Kennedy to stay in the 2024 presidential race to form an independent party.
If she and RFK Jr. get even 5% of the vote, it would establish them as a party and help them access public funding.
And that funding, Shanahan said, could help "keep the party going."
"That's worth something," she continued. "That means that we can position for a real third-party election in 2028 where we don't have to go around and spend tens of millions of dollars on ballot access, which means that we can spend all of that time and money campaigning."
Shanahan concluded that it's "not an easy decision," adding that if they were to drop out, she would consider running for California governor.
"I did not put in tens of millions of dollars to be a spoiler candidate," Shanahan said at one point in the interview.
Shanahan is a Silicon Valley lawyer who has donated thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates, including Pete Buttigieg, since 2018. But now she's joined forces with Kennedy, giving his third-party run a needed financial boost.
Last week, The Washington Post reported that Kennedy had reached out to Kamala Harris' campaign with an offer to endorse her in exchange for a position in her cabinet.
And Kennedy's son posted a since-deleted video last month of a phone conversation between Kennedy and Trump.
The Washington Post later reported that Kennedy suggested he could oversee health services in a Trump administration in exchange for dropping out and endorsing him.
When reached for comment, the Kennedy campaign directed Business Insider to a Kennedy post on X.
"As always, I am willing to talk with leaders of any political party to further the goals I have served for 40 years in my career and in this campaign," the independent party candidate wrote. "These are: reversing the chronic disease epidemic, ending the war machine, cleaning corporate influence out of government and toxic pollution out of the environment, protecting freedom of speech, and ending politicization of enforcement agencies."