Democrats say Republican lawmaker must resign for agreeing with 'cotton-picking' remark

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) – Republican U.S. Representative Jen Kiggans faced calls from Democrats to resign for agreeing with a radio host after he said Democratic lawmaker Hakeem Jeffries should get his “cotton-picking hands off of Virginia.”

Kiggans later said she was agreeing with the host that Jeffries, who is the House of Representatives minority leader and the first Black American to lead a party in Congress, should stay out of Virginia politics and that she did not condone the host’s language.

“If Hakeem Jeffries wants to be involved in Virginia politics, then I suggest he does what a bunch of New Yorkers are doing. 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,” conservative radio host Rich Herrera said on “Richmond’s Morning News.”

“That’s right. Ditto, yes, yes to that,” Kiggans, who represents Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, replied during the interview.

The term “cotton-picking” is considered offensive due to the U.S. history of slavery, when cotton was picked by enslaved people.

Kiggans later issued a statement on X.

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

Jeffries had not commented as of late Monday.

U.S. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and California Governor Gavin Newsom said the Republican lawmaker should resign.

“Now they are using brazenly racist language to attack Black leaders,” Clark said on X.

“Every Republican should be denouncing this racist statement,” Newsom’s office added.

“I am deeply appalled by anyone who promotes this rhetoric. We are no longer enslaved on plantations. We now hold positions of power our ancestors fought for,” Democratic Virginia state Senator Aaron Rouse said in a statement.

Republicans currently hold slim majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives, but control is up for grabs in the midterm elections later this year. 

Republican President Donald Trump launched a national mid-decade redistricting battle between the two parties last ​year that is also playing out in Virginia. 

Virginia voters on April 21 approved a new Democratic-drawn congressional map in a special election that could have flipped four Republican U.S. House seats. 

But the state Supreme Court on May 8 threw out the results, ruling in favor of a Republican challenge that Democratic lawmakers did not follow proper procedures when they passed the proposed referendum and put it on the ballot.

Virginia Democrats on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revive the congressional map designed to boost their party’s chances in November’s midterm elections.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Kate Mayberry)