GOP Rep. Jen Kiggans faces backlash for agreeing with ‘cotton-picking’ comment about Hakeem Jeffries

WASHINGTON — Vulnerable Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Virginia Republican, is under fire after agreeing with a radio show host who said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — the highest-ranking Black lawmaker in Congress — should take his “cotton picking hands off Virginia.”

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Kiggans, one of Democrats’ top targets in the November midterm elections, later posted that the host “should not have used that language” and that she did not condone it.

But that didn’t satisfy Democrats, who condemned Kiggans and urged her to formally apologize. The second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives called on her to resign.

Kiggans was interviewed Monday by radio host Rich Herrera on “Richmond’s Morning News” about the midterm elections and Democrats’ redistricting efforts in Virginia. Herrera said if Jeffries wanted to get involved in Virginia politics, then he should leave New York and run for office in the Commonwealth.

“Otherwise, don’t pick cotton in Virginia,” Herrera said of Jeffries.

“That’s true,” Kiggans replied. “Same. Yes, yes to that.”

Kiggans later posted on

“The radio host should not have used that language and I did not — and do not — condone it. It was obvious to anyone listening that I agreed Hakeem Jefferies should stay out of Virginia,” Kiggans said.

The clip from the radio show began gaining traction Monday evening when it was posted by the liberal opposition research group American Bridge’s X account.

Kiggans, a former Navy helicopter pilot who served in the wars in Iraq and Kosovo, faces a tough reelection campaign for her Virginia Beach-based seat. She is expected to face former Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a retired Navy commander who was defeated by Kiggans in 2022.

“The racist comments proudly endorsed today by Jen Kiggans warning House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to ‘Hands off cotton picking in Virginia’ are disgusting and unworthy of 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 comments,” she added.

Democratic leaders also pounced on Kiggans’ comments, calling them consistent with efforts by the Supreme Court and GOP-controlled state legislatures to weaken the Voting Rights Act and reduce Black representation in Congress.

Rep. Katherine Clark, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, called for Kiggans’ resignation.

And in a lengthy, scathing statement, Christie Stephenson, Jeffries’ main spokeswoman, said Kiggans had demonstrated a “stunning failure of judgment and leadership” for a “so-called moderate” lawmaker.

“Extremists who support disgusting, vile, racist language are pathetic. Jen Kiggans is uninterested in our nation’s progress toward a multiracial democracy and apparently yearns for a return to the days of Jim Crow racial oppression in the South,” Stephenson said in a statement.

“This is why MAGA Republicans in legislatures and courts across America have launched a full-scale attack on black representation,” she said.