Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may be running a longshot campaign, but he grabbed wide attention by announcing his running mate last month.
Kennedy picked Democrat Nicole Shanahan, a 38-year-old ex-Democrat.
However, another ex-Democrat — former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard — claims to have received the same offer from Kennedy. “After careful consideration, I respectfully declined,” Gabbard told ABC News.
Kennedy’s team has yet to comment on the rumors publicly.
However, an anonymous source close to Kennedy corroborated Gabbard’s claim about the offer.
“There were definitely meetings, but it didn’t work out,” this person said. “Tulsi’s a rock star no matter what.”
“He asked if I would be his running mate,” Gabbard said in a statement to the outlet. “I met with Kennedy several times, and we have become good friends.”
While still a Democrat, Gabbard ran for president during 2020’s election cycle. She failed to net a single delegate during the presidential campaign, and she declined to run for re-election to the House that year.
Long described as “unorthodox,” the Hawaii politician had de-registered from the Democratic Party by 2022, and she campaigned for Republican candidates that year. Now an independent, she’s become a paid contributor on Fox News, and she’s releasing a book this month called For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind.
Gabbard has been mentioned by pundits as a possible running mate for former President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, Kennedy was rumored to be eyeing a varied group of public figures, from professional athlete Aaron Rodgers to former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura of the Reform Party. According to one report, Kennedy even called Mike Rowe, the host of the Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs.
The Kennedy insider told ABC News, “We talked to a bunch of people.”
In the end, Kennedy’s campaign picked someone more conventional.
Shanahan is a lawyer, like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, the Clintons and — almost — Al Gore (who dropped out of law school in 1976).
Still, Shanahan has enraged the Democrats by embracing alternative medicine and by maintaining ties to Big Tech capitalists.
All month, the media have been scrutinizing Shanahan’s personal life. She made headlines in 2022 for an alleged affair with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Both she and Musk have denied any affair, but Musk has acknowledged a friendship with Shanahan’s ex-husband, Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
The Horn editorial team