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For years, she dabbled in eastern mysticism, yoga and Judaism. But nothing prepared Nicole Shanahan for the spiritual warfare she experienced on the campaign trail — a struggle that led her into the arms of Jesus.

Nicole Shanahan caught the public eye last year as the running mate of Robert F Kennedy Jr, before the health crusader halted his campaign to join forces with President Donald Trump.

Already known for her billionaire status, being the divorcee of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nicole teamed up with RFK over their shared passion for children’s health and the environment, and she contributed substantially to the cause.

Last year was significant for Nicole in other ways too, as she explained in an X article published Wednesday.

“In September 2024, our family suffered a heart-wrenching loss,” Nicole writes, holding back on further details but describing the event as a major spiritual turning point.

“Not long after the tragedy, I met an incredible woman named Diane, a bishop, who had prayed with me after my loss and was the first to ask me if I wanted to be saved.”

‘I Didn’t Hesitate — I Said Yes’

Strangely enough, Nicole met her mentor through her masseuse, a man named Ade, a “kind, quiet Christian who would whisper prayers for me while he worked without ever letting on”.

It wasn’t until months later that Ade told Nicole about his silent intercession for her, she explains.

“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.” Nicole continues:

One day, it finally hit me that [Ade’s] prayers were doing more to heal me than the deep tissue massage ever could. As we were wrapping a session, I asked, “Hey Ade, do you know anyone who can help keep ‘bad energy’ away from people? Basically an exorcism.” Ade looked at me, paused, and simply said, “Yes—when you are ready.”

“In the weeks following our family’s loss, I saw Ade again, and as he had so many times before, he prayed for me,” she explains. “But this time was different. I bowed my head, let the tears fall, and begged God’s help.”

It was then that Ade connected Nicole with Diane, whom she describes as “a grandmother in her 70s with a quiet strength about her” and who serves as the lead chaplain at Santa Rita Jail, the fifth-largest jail in the United States.

Nicole recalls what happened next:

During that meeting, Diane opened her worn and well-loved Bible—filled with highlights, underlines, and Post-it tabs… She moved through it with laser precision, guiding me to verse after verse as I struggled to read through my blurry, tear-filled eyes. 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. 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.

“I think it took the pain of that moment, the desperate need for hope, and the unwavering intensity in Diane’s eyes to finally break through the last, most stubborn skeptic in me,” confesses Nicole.

“When Diane asked if I wanted to be baptised, I didn’t hesitate—I said yes.”

Spiritual Warfare on the Campaign Trail

In sharing about the events of her conversion, Nicole explains that she’s “always believed in God” but “never fully grasped the reality of the devil” despite growing up with an alcoholic dad who often fell into manic rages.

Nicole’s response since her childhood has been to simply avoid “bad energy” — including through meditative prayer, yoga, studying Eastern religions and pursuing personal development.

However, none of these previous spiritual experiences prepared Nicole for the spiritual warfare she experienced while on the campaign trail:

I never seriously considered whether demons were real—until recently. Honestly, my last year in politics changed that. 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.

With the benefit of hindsight, Nicole concedes that “anyone who has seen addiction up close or lived through deep trauma and witnessed how evil takes hold in this world knows that the battle of good versus evil isn’t just theoretical—it’s real and all around us”.

“Demons certainly exist,” she now affirms, “and Jesus is our covenant with God to fight them”.

Nicole recounts that at the moment she surrendered her life to Christ, “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”.

It was an feeling unlike anything she had encountered in the New Age.

“Now, my prayers are directed toward Jesus,” she declares. “He is the bridge between us and heaven—our Intercessor before the Divine Creator.”

Becoming a Jew for Jesus

Beyond her forays into eastern spirituality, Nicole also spent more than a decade practicing Judaism, first introduced to her by a man she was dating in the mid-2010s.

Her current partner, Jacob, is also Jewish, but in her words “has felt a pull toward Christianity in recent years,” having “sensed that something was missing in his spiritual journey”.

When Nicole told Jacob of her newfound faith in Christ and plans to get baptised, he responded, “I want to be baptised, too,” adding, “We’ll both be Jews for Jesus!”

“For over a decade, I identified as Jewish,” Nicole explains. “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.”

In summarising her radical new perspective on God, Nicole explains:

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. 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.

And she ends her testimony with these words:

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 Nicole Shanahan’s full testimony here.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.