Democrats are calling for Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) to resign after agreeing with a radio host that he said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries should get his "cotton-picking hands off of Virginia."
On Monday (May 11), Kiggans was interviewed on the Richmond Morning News radio show by host Rich Herrara, according to Reuters. The conversation had shifted to Jeffries’s recent attempts to assist Virginia Democrats in their push to pass a new congressional map that would give the party a boost in the midterms.
On May 8, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a ballot measure approved by voters in April that would have allowed Democrats to bypass the state’s bipartisan redistricting committee and reconfigure congressional maps.
Virginia Democrats asked justices to revive the map on Monday, arguing that the ruling "deprived voters, candidates, and the Commonwealth of their right to the lawfully enacted congressional districts."
In a letter issued to House Democrats on the same day, Jeffries vowed the party would have a “massive” response to the ruling and convene in the Capitol on Thursday to discuss plans to launch new Democratic redistricting efforts across Virginia and other blue states.
"If Hakeem Jeffries wants to be involved in Virginia politics, then I suggest he does what a bunch of New Yorkers are doing,” Herrara said. “Leave New York, move down here to Virginia. Run for office down here, you can represent us. If not, get your cotton-picking hands off of Virginia.”
In the audio, Kiggans can be heard agreeing with Herrera, adding, "That's right. Ditto, yes, yes to that.”
Kiggans later defended her remark in a statement shared to X on Monday, saying she does not condone Herrera’s language and that it was “obvious to anyone listening that I was agreeing Hakeem Jeffries should stay out of Virginia.”
While Jeffries did not issue a response, his spokesperson, Christie Stephenson, criticized Kiggans for not pushing back against Herrera on-air.
“Jen Kiggans had her chance to disavow the vile, racist and dehumanizing comments from far-right talk show host Rich Herrera. Instead, she doubled down,” Stephenson wrote in a statement. “Then, Jen Kiggans tripled down and attempted to blame partisanship in a pathetic follow-up statement. It was a stunning failure of judgment and leadership for a so-called moderate Member of Congress representing a large, vibrant African American community in Virginia.”
Several Democratic lawmakers also called for Kiggans to resign over her remarks, with both U.S. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and California Governor Gavin Newsom declaring it “racist.”
"I am deeply appalled by anyone who promotes this rhetoric,” Democratic Virginia state Senator Aaron Rouse, who is Black, said in a statement. “We are no longer enslaved on plantations. We now hold positions of power our ancestors fought for. We’ve come too far, from Virginia Beach to Washington, DC, to normalize this behavior. Shame on you, Jen.”
The Black Information Network is your source for Black News! Get the latest news 24/7 on The Black Information Network. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app or click HERE to tune in live.