The 38-year-old Shahanan heads the Bia-Echo Foundation an organization that seeks to finance vital issues such as reproductive science, criminal justice reform and environmental causes.

Both Kennedy and Shahanan were former democrats who might appeal for youth votes against senior citizens Joe Biden, 81 and Donald Trump, 77.

Kennedy announced Shahanan as his choice during a campaign event in her hometown Oakland.

About 500 people were personally present during the event but over 30,000 attended via livestream.

Now 70, Kennedy Jr. is an environmental lawyer known for his anti-vaccine advocacy and conspiracy theories. He is a son of the late former Sen. Robert Fl Kennedy who was assassinated while campaigning for the presidency.

“Nicole and I both left the Democratic Party. Our values didn’t change. The Democratic Party did,” he said.

He acknowledged the difficulty he will have to face running for the presidency but called on Americans to “take a risk”. He said the belief that he cannot win has so far been the hardest obstacles he faced in his presidential bid.

A newcomer in the political arena, Shahanan took 30 minutes to introduce herself to the audience. She decried the major political parties, the media annd government as being influenced by greedy profiteers.

“It wasn’t until I met Bobby and people supporting him that I felt any hope in the outcome of this election,” she said.

Shananan was former wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. She already donated more than $4 million to the Kennedy campaign.