No Labels sued by ex-employee over alleged racial discrimination

A former Black employee of No Labels is suing the centrist political organization claiming she was discriminated against because of her race and retaliated against for reporting the alleged discrimination.

The group, which has gained both fanfare and criticism for exploring a third party presidential bid, admitted some descriptions of the plaintiff’s time with the group in its answer to the lawsuit, but denied the allegation that it engaged in racial discrimination or retaliation.

Mischa Smith, a former outreach manager at No Labels, alleges in the lawsuit that she was fired by No Labels for reporting discrimination to two of the organization’s higher-ups and that she was treated differently and less favorably from other similar employees of different races. Smith also says in the suit that during her tenure at No Labels, she was “chastised” by an official with the organization “for missing metrics due to her attendance at a family funeral.” She said she was given a new position where she felt she was set up to fail and was not paid enough money for the more strenuous and time-consuming job. As part of the lawsuit, Smith said she was explicitly asked by No Labels founder and CEO Nancy Jacobson to find Black people to support the organization.

Two days after complaining about what she saw as race discrimination to superiors, Smith said in the lawsuit she was “given menial work that the other white coworkers were not” while at a political conference in Houston last year. At the conference, organized by Andrew Yang’s Forward Party, Smith alleges that she was chastised for being late in delivering No Labels-branded cookies that had been made for the event.

“Plaintiff got the cookies and arrived at the venue — which was 8 minutes away — and [No Labels vice president Samantha] Brooks continued to make jokes at Plaintiff’s expense, while [No Labels senior adviser] Holly Page (‘Page’) chastised Plaintiff, telling her to get to work, while the rest of Plaintiff’s white coworkers sat at the table,” the lawsuit says.

POLITICO first reported Smith’s allegations late last year although not by name. But she has now publicly revealed her identity and is asking for lost wages, “pain and suffering” and the loss of health insurance (which Smith said is more than $10,000), an unspecified amount of punitive damages and reimbursement of attorneys fees. The lawsuit was filed on Aug. 4 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

No Labels is laying the groundwork for running a third-party independent presidential candidate next year, an effort that has led many Democrats to criticize the group for potentially becoming a spoiler that could help Donald Trump.

“The legal action initiated against No Labels is without merit, and we are fully committed to vigorously defending our position in the court of law. This lawsuit comes amid a partisan agenda being unleashed against No Labels by an elite network of anti-democracy Democrats,” No Labels co-executive director Liz Morrison said in a statement to POLITICO. In POLITICO’s initial story, No Labels co-executive director Margaret White had said No Labels would not pay “a dime” in any possible suit.

Page declined to comment. Brooks and Jacobson did not respond to requests for comment.

In No Labels’ formal answer to the complaint, the organization denied that Smith’s race had anything to do with how she was treated and denied retaliating against her.

“All actions taken by No Labels with respect to Plaintiff were based upon legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons, and no unlawful factor motivated No Labels in its decision-making regarding Plaintiff’s contract,” No Labels said in its response. “No Labels applied its policies, procedures, and practices without regard to Plaintiff’s race or any complaint.”

The organization said Smith did not meet No Labels’ “legitimate expectations” in her roles at the organization. “Though she was expected to support and build teams as outlined in her contract, she was not sufficiently responsive, failed to recruit attendees for meetings, and even failed to attend many of the meetings she set up,” No Labels said.

And No Labels denied that Smith was reprimanded for not hitting performance targets because she had to attend a family funeral. But they did admit several elements of Smith’s allegations.

“No Labels admits that on or around August 10, 2022 Jacobson requested that Plaintiff assist with diversity recruitment efforts, including African American recruits,” No Labels’ lawyer said.

The organization also said that a number of aspects of her recounting of the cookie episode were accurate, although they also said that Smith arrived late to the conference in Houston and left early.

“No Labels admits that in September 2022 Plaintiff was asked to take ownership for certain aspects of No Labels’ involvement at the conference including recruiting volunteers to attend, managing the RSVPs for the No Labels event, and coordinating the cookie delivery from a local bakery,” No Labels said in its response.