A two-term Republican congresswoman is shrugging off pressure to step down after she audibly endorsed a radio host’s racially loaded jab at the House’s top Black lawmaker.
Jen Kiggans, who has represented Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District since 2023, wrapped up a Monday appearance on local station WRVA’s Richmond’s Morning News by listening in as host Rich Herrera laid into House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for backing efforts to redraw Virginia’s voting map.
Herrera urged the New York Democrat to relocate south and seek office in the commonwealth himself, capping off his tirade: “If not, get your cotton-picking hands off of Virginia.” Kiggans replied: “That’s right, ditto. Yes, yes to that.”
The phrase harks back to chattel slavery and is widely seen as a racist dog whistle. The clip, surfaced online by a Democratic-aligned super PAC, blew up within hours, and by Monday evening the show had scrubbed the episode from its Apple Podcasts page.
Jeffries, the Democrats’ likely pick for speaker if they retake the House this fall, has championed a redistricting that could deliver Democrats roughly four new seats.
The state’s high court torpedoed the plan last week. Republicans, who had slammed the move as a brazen power grab, have pursued similar plays in a number of GOP strongholds. Democrats had framed the Virginia redistricting as a response.
The pile-on was swift. House Democratic Caucus chairman Pete Aguilar of California told Kiggans to “apologize then get the hell out of the House.” Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark followed suit, demanding Kiggans “immediately apologize and resign.”
Kiggans, for her part, has flat out refused to acknowledge she did anything wrong and shown no interest in abandoning her seat. She instead wrote on X that the blame lay with her critics.
“This is precisely what’s wrong with Democrats,” she said. “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 further appeared to suggest the word “ditto” does not in fact mean what it has, by general consensus, always meant. “The radio host should not have used that language and I do not—and did not—condone it,” she said.
“It was obvious to anyone listening that I was agreeing Hakeem Jefferies [sic] should stay out of Virginia,” she concluded. “Democrats are trying to destroy Virginia’s court because they disagree with it. THAT is the real danger to our country.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Kiggans’ and Jeffries’ offices for comment on this story.
