No, Nicole Shanahan wouldn’t be the youngest vice president in history

Near the end of her acceptance speech as the running mate for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., technology entrepreneur and lawyer Nicole Shanahan touted the ticket’s appeal to younger voters.

At the March 26 event in Oakland, California, Shanahan said she understands young voters’ political frustrations because she also is young. 

"People talk about my age," Shanahan said. "It’s true. I will be the youngest vice president in American history."

That’s incorrect. She would be the second youngest.

Shanahan was born in Placer County, California, on Sept. 26, 1985. 

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Derrick Van Orden

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That means she is 38 years old now and would be 39 on Jan. 20, 2025, if the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket wins the election and she’s sworn in.

That’s younger than most incoming vice presidents, but not every single one. John C. Breckenridge was 36 years old when he became James Buchanan’s vice president in 1856 in the run-up to the Civil War.

John C. Breckenridge. (Matthew Brady, public domain)

The second-youngest person to be sworn in as vice president was Richard Nixon, who was 40 years old when he took office with Dwight Eisenhower in 1953.

The Kennedy campaign did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this article.