Republican Congresswoman Jen Kiggans has come under intense criticism after appearing to endorse a racially controversial remark aimed at Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries during a radio interview about Virginia’s redistricting dispute ahead of the US midterm elections.
The controversy arose during Kiggans’s appearance on a conservative radio show hosted by Rich Herrera. While criticising Jeffries for supporting Democratic efforts to redraw Virginia’s congressional map, Herrera reportedly said that the New York Democrat should move to Virginia or “keep your cotton-picking hands off Virginia”. Kiggans responded affirmatively, saying “That’s right” and “Yes to that”, Maktoob Media reported.
The expression “cotton-picking” quickly drew backlash because of its historical links to slavery in the United States, where enslaved Black people were forced to work on cotton plantations. Critics noted that the term “cotton-picker” had long been used as a racist slur against Black people and argued that the remark was especially offensive because it was directed at Jeffries, the first Black leader of a political party in the history of the US Congress.
Kiggans later denied endorsing the racial undertone of the comment. She reportedly stated that she had only been agreeing with the broader point that Jeffries should stay out of Virginia politics. She also said the radio host should not have used such language and insisted that she did not support the remark.
Democrats, however, strongly condemned her response. A spokesperson for Jeffries, Christie Stephenson, reportedly described the comments as racist and dehumanising and accused Kiggans of failing to challenge offensive rhetoric.
Several senior Democratic figures, including Katherine Clark and Gavin Newsom, reportedly called for Kiggans to resign while criticising the exchange. Critics also accused Kiggans and supporters of the Republican Party aligned with the “MAGA” movement of undermining Black political representation and attempting to revive forms of racial oppression associated with the Jim Crow era in the American South.
The Congressional Black Caucus also shared a clip of the interview on X and argued that the remarks were racist and warranted Kiggans’s resignation.
The controversy follows earlier criticism directed at Donald Trump in February over a racist video posted online that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as primates.
The debate is unfolding amid an ongoing political dispute over redistricting in Virginia. Democrats had backed a new congressional map that would strengthen their districts, but the Virginia Supreme Court struck it down, leading to an appeal before the US Supreme Court.
Although racial discrimination in voting is prohibited under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, civil rights groups have expressed concern after a recent Supreme Court ruling weakened a key provision of the law, making it more difficult to challenge racial gerrymandering without explicit evidence of discriminatory intent.