Some Republicans attack Kamala Harris as “DEI hire.” Here’s what that means

In the days after President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him in the 2024 presidential race, several Republican lawmakers suggested she had become the presumptive Democratic nominee on the basis of her gender and race. 

Republicans referring to Harris as “DEI” hire

GOP Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee called Harris a “DEI vice president,” a reference to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming called Harris a “DEI hire” and referred to her as “intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel.” Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin said in an interview with CBS News affiliate WDJT, in Milwaukee, that “Democrats feel they have to stick with her because of her ethnic background.” 

But at this point, Harris, the sitting vice president, has decades of experience in elective office and is a seasoned politician, winning statewide elections in California for the U.S. Senate and state attorney general. She won her first race, for San Francisco district attorney, 20 years ago, in 2004. 

Other Republicans say “that’s not where we want to go”

Slamming Harris as a DEI candidate struck other Republicans, including former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as “totally stupid and dumb,” he said Tuesday on NBC News’ podcast “Meet the Press NOW.“

Other Republicans, too, have been calling on party colleagues to tamp down the rhetoric. In an interview Thursday with CBS News, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida said the comments about DEI from his colleagues had been “nipped in the bud” and that he had stressed to them “that’s not where we want to go.” 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told reporters on Wednesday that the election “is going to be about policies, not personalities” and said Harris’ “ethnicity or gender has nothing to do with this whatsoever.” 

JD Vance and “childless cat ladies” remark

Attacks centering on Harris’ gender and race are not new. Supporters of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump have long targeted Harris with insults like “Joe and the Hoe.” In 2021, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who is now Trump’s running mate, told Tucker Carlson that the country was run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies,” including Harris. 

Harris is a stepmother to two children from her husband’s previous marriage. 

On Thursday, Harris’ stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff, posted on Instagram, “I love my three parents.” And earlier, first gentleman Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife told The New York Times in a statement, “For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.”

Harris and Willie Brown

Critics have also resurfaced an old attack on Harris that alleges her past relationships powered her political ascent. Harris dated Willie Brown in the 1990s, the year before Brown was elected mayor of San Francisco. Brown, who was married but separated while he was dating Harris, appointed her to two state commission posts while he was serving as speaker of the California Assembly. Their relationship ended in 1995, nine years before Harris was elected San Francisco district attorney and later the state’s attorney general. 

When Harris was running to be San Francisco’s district attorney in 2003, her ties to Brown made headlines. But Harris defended herself against critics who brought him up.

“I refuse to design my campaign around criticizing Willie Brown for the sake of appearing to be independent when I have no doubt that I am independent of him — and that he would probably right now express some fright about the fact that he cannot control me,” she said in an interview with SF Weekly that same year.  

Bias and women running for office

Longstanding double standards likely contribute to the idea some people have that Harris didn’t earn her place in politics; over half of Americans think that women must to do more than men when seeking high political office, a 2023 Pew study found.

As a woman of color, Harris is more likely to be subject to this type of rhetoric, according to Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation researcher and founder of the American Sunlight Project, which aims to identify and expose disinformation. Jankowicz herself has been the victim of gendered attacks, and her appointment to lead the short-lived Disinformation Governance Board under Mr. Biden was met with vitriol from the right.

In a study in 2020 of abuse and disinformation targeting 13 female political candidates that Jankowicz led, 78% of the attacks targeted Harris. That year, as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Harris was arguably the highest-profile woman in American politics.

“The idea there is to undermine her legitimacy, undermine her professionalism, undermine her accomplishments and appeal to people’s basic misogynistic instinct,” Jankowicz said. “There are people who are alleging that her accomplishments are less than, or that she didn’t earn her place because she is a Black woman.”

“Her terms in the Senate and her record as vice president speaks for itself,” she added.