WASHINGTON — Vulnerable Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., is under fire after she agreed with a radio show host who said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — the highest-ranking Black lawmaker in Congress — should get his “cotton-picking hands off of Virginia.”
Kiggans, one of Democrats’ top targets in the November midterm election, later posted that the host “should not have used that language” and that she did not condone it.
But that did little to satisfy Democrats, who have condemned her and urged her to formally apologize. The second-most powerful House Democrat has called on her to resign.
Kiggans was being interviewed Monday by radio host Rich Herrera on “Richmond’s Morning News” about the midterm elections and Democrats’ redistricting efforts in Virginia. Herrera said that if Jeffries wanted to be involved in Virginia politics, then he should move from New York and run for office in the commonwealth.
“If not, get your cotton-picking hands off of Virginia,” Herrera said.
“That’s right,” Kiggans replied. “Ditto. Yes, yes to that.”
Kiggans later said on X that she was agreeing with Herrera’s sentiment that Jeffries should keep out of Virginia politics — not with the racist phrase that has ties to slavery and sharecropping.
“The radio host should not have used that language and I do not — and did not — condone it. It was obvious to anyone listening that I was agreeing Hakeem Jefferies should stay out of Virginia,” Kiggans said.
The clip of the radio show started gaining traction Monday night when it was posted by the X account of the liberal opposition research group American Bridge.
Kiggans, a former Navy helicopter pilot who served in the Iraq and Kosovo wars, faces a tough re-election bid for her seat based in Virginia Beach. She is expected to square off with former Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a retired Navy commander whom Kiggans defeated in 2022.
“The racist comments proudly endorsed today by Jen Kiggans warning House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to ‘Get your cotton-picking hands off of Virginia’ are disgusting and beneath any elected official. I grew up in the South. I know what these racist dog whistles mean,” Luria said on X.
Kiggans “should publicly apologize and denounce these racist remarks,” she added.
Democratic leaders also pounced on Kiggans’ comments, saying they were in line with the Supreme Court and GOP-controlled state legislatures’ push to weaken the Voting Rights Act and slash Black representation in Congress.
Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, called for Kiggans to resign.
And in a lengthy, scathing statement, Christie Stephenson, the top spokesperson for Jeffries, said Kiggans displayed a “stunning failure of judgment and leadership” for a “so-called moderate” lawmaker.
“Extremists who endorse disgusting, vile and racist language are pathetic. Jen Kiggans has no interest in our nation’s progress toward a multi-racial democracy and apparently craves a return to the days of Jim Crow racial oppression in the South,” Stephenson said in a statement.
“That’s why MAGA Republicans in legislatures and courts across America have launched a full-scale assault on Black representation,” she said.
The House Republicans’ campaign arm rushed to Kiggans’ defense. “Democrats’ performative outrage over this total nothing-burger is completely selective and driven by politics, not principle,” said Will Kiley, spokesman for the National Congressional Campaign Committee, noting violent text messages from Jay Jones, Democrats’ nominee for Virginia attorney general last year.
