Striding on to the stage in her hometown of Oakland after being announced as Robert F Kennedy Jr’s running-mate on his independent presidential ticket, Nicole Shanahan had come both extraordinarily far yet, geographically at least, not far at all.
The daughter of a Chinese immigrant and a father suffering with serious mental illness, Shanahan had an impoverished childhood in the city, with her family relying on food stamps.
From waiting tables at a burger joint at age 12, the 38-year-old forged a successful Silicon Valley career before marrying one of the world’s richest men in the Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
Introducing herself as Kennedy’s vice-presidential pick for the first time, Shanahan told supporters inside the Henry J Kaiser Center for the Arts that her background
