In a new interview with Impact Theory’s Tom Bilyeu, Nicole Shanahan, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, said they are currently deciding whether to remain in the race or to end their bid for the White House and endorse former President Donald Trump.
During the interview that was recorded on Monday and released on Tuesday, Shanahan said, “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 continued, “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.” She emphasized that they don’t want to be spoilers.
She accused the Democratic National Committee of sabotaging their campaign, telling Bilyeu, “We wanted to win. We wanted a fair shot. The DNC made that impossible for us. They have banned us, shadow-banned us, kept us off stages, manipulated polls, used law-fare against us, sued us in every possible state — they’ve even planted insiders into our campaign to disrupt it and to create actual legal issues for us.”
She added, “We’re still learning new ways that they have sabotaged us.”
The National Review contacted the DNC for a comment. In a statement, DNC communications adviser Lis Smith said Shanahan “isn’t even pretending to be a serious VP candidate anymore.” She went on to say: “In one interview alone, she floated RFK Jr. for HHS Secretary in a Trump administration, discussed her interest in running for governor of California in 2026, admitted that the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign has no path to victory, and raised the possibility of joining forces with Trump to defeat Vice President Harris. From the beginning of this race, we’ve said that RFK Jr. is nothing more than a spoiler for Donald Trump, and we’re glad that his running mate is finally admitting it.”
According to Axios, the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign is struggling financially. The campaign raised $5.4 million in June and $5.6 million in July but spent $6.2 million and $7.2 million, respectively.
In the RealClearPolitics average of head-to-head national polls, Vice President Kamala Harris currently leads Trump by 1.5 points. Harris draws 48.2%, compared to Trump’s 46.7%.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls in a five-way race also shows Harris ahead of Trump by 1.5 points. In that scenario, Harris draws 46.4%, Trump, 44.9%; and Kennedy, 4.5%.
Although Harris leads by the same amount in both the head-to-head and five-way scenarios, a look at the individual polls included in the average shows that Kennedy’s presence in the race does affect the results.
According to The Washington Post, Kennedy’s candidacy hurts Trump more than Harris, so his exit from the race would be good news for Team Trump.
We’ll wait to see what Kennedy and Shanahan decide.
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