House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has hit back at a Republican lawmaker after she agreed with a racist remark made about him by a radio host on air.
The moment came during a discussion about Virginia’s escalating redistricting fight after the state Supreme Court struck down a congressional map approved by voters in April in a referendum.
Democrats had hoped the map could help them gain as many as four additional House seats ahead of the midterm elections in November.
Following the ruling, some Democrats, including Jeffries, floated the possibility of replacing the entire Virginia Supreme Court in an effort to restore the map.
During a radio interview with Rep. Jen Kiggans about the dispute, conservative Richmond host Rich Herrera argued that the New York Democrat should stay out of Virginia politics.
“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, and run for office down here,” Herrera said. “If not, get your cotton-picking hands off of Virginia.”
The Virginia Republican responded: “That’s right. I, ditto. Yes, yes to that.”
The interview segment was later removed, but the exchange quickly sparked outrage online and intensified pressure on Kiggans, who is facing a competitive re-election race in a closely divided district that President Donald Trump carried by less than one point in 2024.
Her Democratic challenger, former Rep. Elaine Luria, condemned the remarks as “disgusting and beneath any elected official” in a post on X, adding: “I grew up in the South. I know what these racist dog whistles mean.”
Some Democrats have since called on Kiggans to resign.
Kiggans has denied endorsing the racist language itself, insisting she was agreeing only with Herrera’s broader argument that Jeffries should not be involved in Virginia’s redistricting battle.
“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 Jeffries should stay out of Virginia.”
Jeffries’ office rejected that explanation.
“Jen Kiggans had her chance to disavow the vile, racist and dehumanizing comments from far-right talk show host Rich Herrera,” Christie Stephenson, a spokeswoman for Jeffries, said in comments reported by Punchbowl News reporter Ally Mutnick.
“Instead, she doubled down,” Stephenson added, saying “the voters of Virginia will hold her accountable at the ballot box in November.”
The redistricting push in Virginia comes in response to Republicans rushing to gerrymander in Texas and other red states across the country at the behest of Trump.
But the Virginia effort suffered a major setback when the commonwealth’s Supreme Court struck down the voter-approved map in a narrow 4–3 ruling last month, finding the process violated the state constitution on procedural grounds.
Trump celebrated the decision almost immediately.
“Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia. The Virginia Supreme Court has just struck down the Democrats’ horrible gerrymander,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Supporters of the referendum blasted the ruling, arguing it overrode the will of millions of voters.
“Over three million Virginians participated in a free and fair election. They showed up in historic numbers, followed the rules, and made a clear decision at the ballot box. And today, the Supreme Court of Virginia decided these votes will not count,” the group Virginians for Fair Elections said in a statement.
The organization vowed to continue fighting the decision, while Jeffries said Democrats were exploring ways to reverse the ruling and maintained the party would still retake the House in November.
Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom accused MAGA Republicans of having “rigged” the system ahead of the midterm elections without seeking voter approval for their own redistricting changes.
