A lawsuit against Instacart alleges that the mobile shopping giant fired a corporate employee for running for Congress, citing fears that some of her Democratic positions could lead to backlash from President Donald Trump and Republicans.
The lawsuit from Lisa Vedernikova Khanna, a candidate in Virginia, alleges that the California-based company “conditioned” her employment on her ending her campaign and that an internal Instacart “risk assessment” of her bid stated that the campaign “presented risk to the company” because it could involve criticizing the president and other Republicans.
Khanna contends Instacart’s action is the latest example of how Trump’s threats of retaliation have intimidated corporate America, leading large companies to recalibrate their approach to political speech as they fear a president who has used his bully pulpit and executive powers.
The lawsuit says Instacart violated a California law that bars companies from preventing their employees from becoming candidates for public office, among other complaints.
According to the lawsuit, a senior company official cautioned in the risk assessment that Khanna’s campaign “would involve criticizing Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration, which could be attributed to Instacart.”
“Instacart was poised to green-light my run up until they saw my policy positions and then they illegally fired me out of fear of retaliation from Republicans in the Trump administration,” Khanna said in an interview. “Corporate America has really been bending a knee out of fear by limiting the political expression of employees in different ways. And I think that’s really chilling and something that concerns us all.”
Lyndsey Grubbs, an Instacart spokesperson, said in a statement that Khanna’s “claim that her separation from Instacart was somehow politically motivated is flat out false,” alleging that she was fired because the company determined it was impossible for her to “fulfill the demands of her role” while also running for Congress.
“Her political beliefs had absolutely nothing to do with this decision,” said Grubbs, noting that the company had approved prior requests she made, including to be the president of the Virginia Young Democrats.
Grubbs added that the company offered Khanna either a leave of absence or a paid, hourly consulting arrangement, but that Khanna declined, “and instead demanded that we pay her $5 million.”
Andrew Adelman, the attorney representing Khanna in the suit, called Instacart’s assertions — including the demanded payout — “false on all counts.”
“In fact, Instacart themselves affirmatively said that capacity and bandwidth were not issues. Nor did they offer any consulting arrangement,” Adelman said in a statement.
Khanna, who was hired in 2022 as the chief of staff to Instacart’s chief corporate affairs officer, announced her campaign earlier this year, joining a crowded Democratic primary looking to take on Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Virginia) in a competitive 2026 race. Another candidate, Shannon Taylor, the commonwealth’s attorney for Henrico County, has garnered more early support from national Democrats.
Khanna came to Instacart from politics, having previously worked as a chief of staff at the Democratic National Committee.
Instacart is a technology company that enables consumers to have groceries and other goods delivered directly to them. It was founded in 2012 and offers delivery and pickup from nearly 100,000 stores across North America.
Khanna, who worked remotely for the company from Virginia, said she informed her supervisors in April of her planned campaign. Though they initially responded positively to her decision to run, Khanna said, they grew concerned in June after reviewing a draft of her campaign website, pointing out her positions on abortion and guns.
Her website details relatively standard Democratic positions on both issues, with the candidate backing increased background checks for gun purchases, restoring abortion rights the Supreme Court overturned in 2022 and blocking efforts to pass a national abortion ban.
“The day that I shared my website copy was also the day that [Instacart’s support] pretty explicitly shifted,” Khanna said in the interview. “I received a phone call where I was told that my campaign website, my policy positions were what ultimately made them change their minds.”
The lawsuit alleges that the company gave Khanna the option to end her campaign or keep her job, which led to her termination in July. The lawsuit details an alleged conversation in which an Instacart human resources official asked her, the day after she launched her campaign, if it was “an option” for her to cancel her run so she could keep her job.
The human resources official said that “termination would be the next step assuming [Ms. Khanna was] going to run anyway,” the lawsuit says. Khanna declined to end her campaign, and she was fired, according to the lawsuit.
Trump has shown a willingness throughout his second term to use the power of the presidency to coerce corporate America. He has demanded that companies fire certain employees, attacked corporate diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and solicited donations from corporate leaders for projects like his White House ballroom.
Trump has also injected himself into corporate affairs, such as striking a deal so the U.S. government gets a stake in certain sales Nvidia makes with China and securing a “golden share” arrangement in Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel that gives the federal government final say over key parts of the company’s U.S. business.
Khanna told The Post that her termination made clear to her that Instacart “viewed the potential for Republican backlash to be more significant than my legal right to run for office.”
Instacart donated $100,000 to Trump’s second inauguration fund, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Khanna’s lawsuit also contends that then-Instacart CEO Fidji Simo directed Khanna’s direct boss to “send a gift to Ivanka Trump celebrating her father’s election victory” following Trump’s win.
Simo left Instacart earlier this year for a top position at OpenAI and did not respond to a request for comment. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.) An Instacart spokesperson said that Simo and Ivanka Trump had met through their prior work, and that the former Instacart CEO sent the president’s daughter cookies as a gift following the election.
The lawsuit sues Instacart, headquartered in California, citing the California Labor Code that states “no employer shall make, adopt, or enforce any rule, regulation, or policy … forbidding or preventing employees from engaging or participating in politics or from becoming candidates for public office.”
The lawsuit alleges that Instacart’s review process, which was used in Khanna’s case, allows the company to bar an employee from “participating in outside-of-work activities in which its employees advocate for policy positions that are not aligned with those of the company.”
Joseph Paller, a partner at Gilbert & Sackman who practices labor and employment law in California but is not representing Khanna, said the state has a long history of protecting employees in similar situations.
“We have legislation [in California] going back about 100 years now, maybe even longer than that, that protects employees from discrimination or retaliation based upon their outside political activities,” Paller said. “The goal of the law is to protect employees’ rights to political expression outside of work.”
Khanna, who learned she was pregnant shortly before being terminated by Instacart, has continued her campaign, but she said the ordeal “has sort of been the background of my very first pregnancy,” offering a “jarring” and “sad” experience that forced her to “start worrying about things that I never thought I’d have to worry about before, like paid leave and health care.”
Her campaign website does not mention that she worked at Instacart, and the lawsuit details how she “proactively” deleted her LinkedIn and took what steps she could to delete content linking her to the company online “to minimize any chance that someone searching for her on the internet would be able to associate her with the company.”
Khanna said the experience, however, has compelled her to campaign on “the fact that corporate America, especially this year, seems to be bending a knee in fear of retaliation, and that impacts a lot of Americans.”
“There is a clear fear that companies have that the Trump administration may come after them, even if that’s not really rooted in reality or fact, and even if he’s never talked about the company,” Khanna said. “It is really chilling in a democracy to have companies operating out of fear.”
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