'I Am a Jew for Jesus': Former RFK Jr. Running Mate Gets Born Again and Baptized
Nicole Shanahan, the billionaire and former vice presidential running mate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has dabbled in everything from Eastern mysticism to yoga and has even practiced Judaism for more than a decade. But after facing a "heart-wrenching" personal loss and intense "spiritual warfare" on the campaign trail, she says the only place she found refuge was in the arms of Jesus.
"Sometimes life has this way of turning down the volume on all the chaos, and in that stillness, we get a clear glimpse of what truly matters. One of these moments occurred in my life last month," she wrote in "My Baptism Story," a mini testimonial posted to X.
It's an amazing conversion story that begins in September 2014 and takes a turn "just a few days before the presidential inauguration."
The 39-year-old patent attorney, Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur, and ex-wife of Google founder Sergey Brin, writes that she decided to give her life to Christ and be baptized after being involved in politics.
Although Kennedy dropped out of the race and threw his support behind President Donald Trump last year, the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket still appeared on the ballot in several states during the November election and won more than 750,000 votes nationwide. It amounts to roughly 0.5% of the national popular vote total, but for Shanahan, it was a tough road.
She said she "never seriously considered whether demons were real" until that point in her career.
"Honestly, my last year in politics changed that," Shanahan continued. "Learning just how far some will go to inflict atrocities on innocent Americans has shocked me awake. Other unexplainable events have also forced me to reconsider whether we are waging a war not merely with flesh and blood but with spiritual forces."
Converting to Judaism
Before this "wake-up call," Shanahan said she "practiced meditative prayer, influenced by years of practicing yoga, studying Eastern religions, and engaging in 'personal development' through programs like the Hoffman Process."
In 2014, she converted to Judaism because she had come to enjoy "that it brings families together" and if she was going to give her future kids something she didn't have growing up, "Judaism provides a wonderful blueprint."
"The process was long and immersive: over a year spent at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, attending study sessions and group conversion classes several times a week. I wrote a ten-page conversion statement—one of the best pieces of writing from that chapter of my life, in hindsight. It was a deep dive into the Torah, guided by the wisdom of several teachers," she writes.
Over the last decade, she has identified as a Jew, but then recent tragic events in her life led her to see Jesus as the Messiah.
It began in September 2024 after her family suffered a "heart-wrenching loss" that she notes in her X post that she is declining to speak about at this time.
Through her masseuse, Ade, she met Diane, a woman who she calls a "deeply faithful soul" who helped guide her closer to Jesus and prayed with her.
Being introduced to Diane was more than just happenstance as Ade had been praying for Shanahan's salvation for years.
"To this day, he remembers the first time we met and how worried he was about me. Coming out of my previous marriage, I was thin, fragile, totally worn down, and in anguish," she recalled. "One day, it finally hit me that his prayers were doing more to heal me than the deep tissue massage ever could."
She shares that after her family loss, she asked Ade for prayer many times. But one day, the prayers felt "different."
"This time was different. I bowed my head, let the tears fall, and begged God's help. It was then that Ade connected me with Diane," Shanahan says.
Diane, she says, was someone like her, "a woman of mixed race from Oakland." But this 70-year-old grandma serves as a chaplain at the fifth-largest jail in the country.
The meeting between the two women was intense, yet emotional as Diane combed through the Bible with a laser-like precision that finally broke through the "stubborn skeptic" in Shanahan.
"The pain of life sometimes can consume your entire reality, and the injustice, the loss, and the extreme nature of it all can feel genuinely unbearable. The weight of the world, perpetuated by greed, lies, and indifference, can often feel hopeless," she said. "(But) Diane looked at me and said with absolute certainty that Jesus could save me—that His blood is able to wash away sins and defeat the darkness that haunts the innocent."
When Diane asked the young mom if she wanted to be baptized, she immediately said yes.
TODAY, I AM A JEW FOR JESUS@NicoleShanahan shared today that she put her faith in Jesus Christ and was baptized.
— Matt Brown (@evangelistmatt) February 26, 2025
She writes, “Sometimes life has this way of turning down the volume on all the chaos, and in that stillness, we get a clear glimpse of what truly matters. One of… pic.twitter.com/SSkmrP1l1A
"When I said 'yes' to accepting Jesus as my Savior, I felt something I could hardly put into words. It was like being wrapped in a warm cocoon while becoming a grounded, weighted, immovable obelisk," she recalled.
Shanahan says she is now seeing the "light."
"For over a decade, I identified as Jewish. But now, with the New Testament in my hands, I see the world's spiritual pain in a way I never could before. It's like a veil has been lifted, revealing a deeper understanding of the struggle between light and darkness," she explained. "Today, I am a Jew for Jesus."
New Convert Shares Christ
The brand new convert was bold enough to share the Gospel with her more than 547,000 followers writing, "Jesus longed more than anything to save 'God's lost sheep.'"
"It was the deepest, most unfulfilled desire of the holiest being to walk this earth. And I believe that longing still exists today—an aching truth we've ignored, distorted, and misunderstood for far too long," she shared. "The universe itself is pressing us forward, like cheese through a grater, forcing us to feel the weight of God's pain, the sorrow of a Father who gave His only Son, only to see Him rejected instead of upheld as the one true Messiah."
Shanahan concluded in her post, "For those who are searching, who feel the same longing I once did, I can only say this: keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Faith is not about having all the answers but about trusting in the One who does. And when you find Him, you will know you are finally home."
READ: Co-Founder of Wikipedia Reveals His Journey from 'Skeptical Philosopher' to Christian
