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

Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Virginia Republican, is under fire after she agreed with a comment that Hakeem Jeffries should get his “cotton-picking hands off of Virginia.”

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

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

But that did little to satisfy Democrats, who have condemned Kiggans and urged her to formally apologize. The second-most powerful House Democrat has called on her to resign.