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Nicole in Wonderland

Just a few years ago, Nicole Shanahan was being courted by everyone in Silicon Valley as the next great hope for the Democratic Party. Then her life went topsy-turvy, and she fell down the rabbit hole for R.F.K., Jr.

Nicole Shanahan Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Shanahan’s only-in-Silicon Valley transformation—from patent lawyer to scenester to philanthropist and now, suddenly, a vice presidential candidate—has floored those who used to party or talk politics with her. Photo: AP Photo/Eric Risberg
Theodore Schleifer
March 26, 2024

Last week, amid the crush of events and obligations that would ordinarily surround a campaign for president, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reached out to an old friend in Malibu, the surrealist painter and art dealer Zoe Rose Schwartz. Kennedy had commissioned some work from her before, and he was back in town. This time, though, he wanted to show her work to a new friend: Nicole Shanahan, his 38-year-old mega-donor once married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.