A former Instacart employee running for Congress alleges in a lawsuit that the company fired her out of concern that her Democratic political views could lead to backlash from the Trump administration.
Elizabeth Vedernikova Khanna, a candidate for Virginia’s 1st Congressional District, worked as chief of staff to Instacart’s chief corporate affairs officer since early 2023 and was terminated in June, according to the suit filed Sunday in San Francisco Superior Court.
Khanna, who goes by Lisa, accuses the grocery delivery giant of reversing its initial approval for her congressional bid after reviewing a copy of her campaign website’s policy positions, “specifically support for abortion rights and gun control.”
Instacart suddenly determined “that the potential risk of Republican backlash to the company outweighed Ms. Khanna’s right to run for public office,” alleges the lawsuit, which was first reported by The Washington Post earlier Monday.
Hours after that review took place, the San Francisco-based company “prohibited Ms. Khanna from running for Congress while keeping her job, ostensibly enforcing company rules and policies,” according to the suit.
“Less than two weeks later it terminated her because of her stated policy positions,” Khanna’s attorneys allege.
An Instacart spokesperson, in an emailed statement to CNBC, said, “Khanna’s claim that her separation from Instacart was somehow politically motivated is flat out false.”
“As part of our Conflicts of Interest policy assessment, we determined it would be impossible for Lisa to fulfill the demands of her role as the Chief of Staff to our Chief Corporate Affairs Officer – who runs our policy & government affairs and communication teams – while simultaneously running a 17-month federal campaign for Congress,” the spokesperson said.
“Her political beliefs had absolutely nothing to do with this decision,” the spokesperson said, adding that the company “repeatedly supported her civic involvement” by “approving a number of prior requests for public-facing political leadership roles that were far less time intensive.”
Instacart offered Khanna “a leave of absence or a paid, hourly consulting arrangement during her campaign,” but she “rejected both offers, and instead demanded that we pay her $5 million — more than 20x her annual salary,” the spokesperson alleged.
Khanna’s lawyers, meanwhile, say Instacart’s actions are of a piece with how corporate America has sought to stay in the federal government’s good graces since President Donald Trump returned to office.
“There has been a well-documented trend of powerful corporations bending over backwards to curry favor with the Trump Administration,” her lawyers said in a statement on the lawsuit.
The suit itself says that then-CEO Fidji Simo took “several actions to strengthen Instacart’s and her relationship with the Trump Administration” after the 2024 election. Those actions included sending a congratulatory gift to Ivanka Trump and having the company donate $100,000 to Trump’s inaugural fund, while seeking meetings with high-level administration associates, according to the lawsuit.
Khanna accuses Instacart of violating rules against blocking employee’s political activities, and of wrongfully firing her “in violation of the fundamental public policy of the State of California.”
She is asking for a jury trial and seeks both punitive and compensatory damages, “including emotional distress damages and economic damages.”
She is also asking a judge to order Instacart to “provide mandatory and meaningful training to all executives, managers, and employees regarding the laws prohibiting interference with and retaliation against employees for their political actions and political activities.”
www.cnbc.com (Article Sourced Website)
#Instacart #employee #fired #Democratic #congressional #campaign