Jen Kiggans Faces Calls To Resign After Endorsing Rich Herrera’s ‘Cotton-Picking’ Remark About Hakeem Jeffries

A controversy erupted in Virginia after Rep. Jen Kiggans appeared on Richmond’s “Richmond’s Morning News” with host Rich Herrera and responded to a racist remark about House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries by saying, “That’s right. Ditto. Yes. Yes to that.”

““That’s right,” Kiggans said in response. “Ditto.””

Scripps News

The exchange centered on Herrera’s line telling Jeffries to “get your cotton-picking hands off of Virginia,” as Kiggans discussed the ongoing battle over redistricting in the state.

Al Jazeera

Jeffries’s office later condemned the episode, with Christie Stephenson saying, “Extremists who endorse disgusting, vile and racist language are pathetic.”

Katherine Clark, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, added that Kiggans “should immediately apologize and resign,” as Democrats pressed for accountability while the redistricting fight continued ahead of the November midterm elections.

Kiggans later said she did not condone Herrera’s language and argued that the backlash was a “lie and distortion” from Democrats, while also saying “The radio host should not have used that language and I do not -and did not - condone it.”

In a statement, Stephenson said Kiggans had “tripled down” on “the “vile, racist and dehumanizing comments” from Herrera, framing the incident as a failure of judgment and leadership.

Daily Kos

Rep. Pete Aguilar called the rhetoric “absolutely disqualifying from a Member of Congress,” and Rep. Yvette Clarke said, “No matter what you say now, the fact is that you did not say a thing then — and that is precisely what’s wrong with Republicans!”

Kiggans’s explanation did not end the pressure, as the Congressional Black Caucus posted the clip on X with the caption, “Did she agree with him? Yes. Is this racist? Yes. Should she resign? Yes to that, too.”

The controversy unfolded alongside a nationwide battle over redistricting, with Virginia voters approving a redrawn map in April that increased Democrat-leaning districts before the state’s Supreme Court invalidated it.

“The high court struck down a key provision in the Voting Rights Act”

Al Jazeera

Democrats appealed to the US Supreme Court to intervene, while the Al Jazeera report said a late-April US Supreme Court decision weakened how the Voting Rights Act may be enforced by striking down a key provision.

The legal shift, the report said, makes it easier to break up predominantly Black congressional districts “except in cases where there are explicitly racist motivations,” and civil rights groups charged that such motivations would be near impossible to prove.

Against that backdrop, the dispute over Kiggans’s comments fed into calls for her resignation as Democrats sought to revive the congressional map and Republicans continued pursuing redistricting efforts in states including Tennessee, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina.