No, Usha Vance didn’t call Kamala Harris a ‘DEI hire’ on X

Republicans have intensified attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, and focused some on her race and gender. Recently, attorney Usha Vance, wife of Republican vice presidential nominee and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, appeared to join in the fray.

A July 23 Threads post shared a screenshot of a lengthy X post from an account named "Usha Chilukuri Vance" with the username @ushachilukuri_. (Chilukuri was Usha’s maiden name.)

"You can support Kamala or not based on your personal political views, but she was absolutely a DEI hire," Vance’s supposed X post read. DEI means diversity, equity and inclusion.

(Screengrab from Threads)

We saw the screengrab shared elsewhere on Threads. These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

PolitiFact contacted J.D. Vance’s spokesperson to verify whether this X account bearing his wife’s name and likeness was authentic, but did not receive a response by publication.

Featured Fact-check

X posts

stated on October 22, 2024 in posts on X

A photo shows The Atlantic published a story headlined “Trump is Literally Hitler.”

We found no credible news reports that said Usha Vance made this post about Harris.

We also searched for Vance’s social media accounts and found no authentic accounts on X or Instagram. She appears to have real profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn. Those accounts contained no public posts about DEI or Harris.

The X account bearing the name "@ushachilukuri_" has been suspended. But X users shared a screenshot of the account that showed Vance’s location as San Diego, where she was born. But that’s not where Vance is currently based; the Vance family has homes in Cincinnati and Alexandria, Virginia.

The account’s photo was taken from Vance’s profile on the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson’s website, where Vance worked before she resigned July 15 after former President Donald Trump named her husband to the campaign ticket. Vance’s profile has since been removed from the website, but an archived version from June 26 shows the photo.

As women of color, both Vance and Harris have faced race- and gender-based attacks online. Vance is the daughter of Indian immigrants. Harris, born in Oakland, California, is also the daughter of immigrants; her father is from Jamaica and her mother from India.

Some Republicans, including Reps. Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, have called Harris a "DEI hire" in recent interviews. If elected president, Harris would be the first multiracial and woman president.

We rate the claim that Usha Vance posted on X that Harris was "absolutely a DEI hire" False.