House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) condemned Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) on Tuesday over a radio interview where she appeared to agree with a racist comment made about him.
Kiggans has been under scrutiny after an appearance on Rich Herrera’s radio show on Monday to discuss redistricting. Herrera said that unless Jeffries, who is black, moves to Virginia, he should take his “cotton-pickin’ hands off” the state’s politics.
“That’s right, ditto,” Kiggans responded. “Yes, yes to that.”
A statement from Jeffries’s spokesperson referred to Kiggans as an extremist who endorsed “disgusting, vile, and racist language,” and asserted that “voters of Virginia will hold her accountable at the ballot box in November.”
“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,” the statement read. “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.”
However, the statement did not go so far as to call on Kiggans to resign from her House seat, as other Democrats, including the No. 2 House Democrat, Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), have demanded since the clip was released.
Clark said in a statement on Monday that Kiggans should “immediately apologize” and step down over the incident.
“First they gutted the Voting Rights Act,” Clark wrote in a post to X. ”Now they are using brazenly racist language to attack Black leaders.”
Kiggans did not apologize in a statement responding to calls for her to resign, instead saying the Democratic response to the statement was “precisely what’s wrong” with the party.
“Every lie and distortion is intended to distract from getting their hats handed to them and the Virginia Supreme Court’s clear message: stop trying to rig our elections,” Kiggans wrote.
“The radio host should not have used that language and I do not -and did not – condone it,” she added. “It was obvious to anyone listening that I was agreeing Hakeem [Jeffries] should stay out of Virginia.”
Kiggans was one of four Republican seats at risk under the Democratic-led state legislatures’ redrawn congressional map approved by voters that the Supreme Court of Virginia blocked last week for failing to follow the constitutional process required to place the measure on the ballot.
JEN KIGGANS FENDS OFF CALLS TO RESIGN OVER RADIO INTERVIEW
Democrats filed an emergency petition to the Supreme Court on Monday, asking the high court to reinstate the new congressional map.
Both parties have been engaged in a back-and-forth gerrymandering war as both parties try to win control of the House in the 2026 midterm elections. Currently, Democrats are expected to gain six seats, and Republicans could gain 10, though that number may change as more states redraw their congressional districts and navigate legal challenges to these efforts.