{"id":22559,"date":"2026-05-12T14:47:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/top-house-democrats-slam-jen-kiggans-over-radio-hosts-vile-and-racist-language\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:47:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:47:20","slug":"top-house-democrats-slam-jen-kiggans-over-radio-hosts-vile-and-racist-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/top-house-democrats-slam-jen-kiggans-over-radio-hosts-vile-and-racist-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Top House Democrats slam Jen Kiggans over radio host\u2019s \u2018vile and racist language’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Democrats are hammering Rep. Jen Kiggans after the vulnerable Virginia Republican concurred with a Richmond radio host saying Hakeem Jeffries should get his \u201ccotton-picking hands<\/a>\u201d off Virginia politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cDitto, yes, yes to that,\u201d Kiggans responded.<\/p>\n

Christie Stephenson, a spokesperson for Jeffries, called the moment a \u201cstunning failure of judgement for a so-called moderate Member of Congress representing a large, vibrant African American community in Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExtremists who endorse disgusting, vile and racist language are pathetic,\u201d she said in a Tuesday statement. \u201cJen Kiggans has no interest in our nation\u2019s progress toward a multi-racial democracy and apparently craves a return to the days of Jim Crow racial oppression in the South. That\u2019s why MAGA Republicans in legislatures and courts across America have launched a full-scale assault on Black representation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minority Whip Katherine Clark, the No. 2 Democratic leader, called it<\/a> \u201cbrazenly racist language\u201d and said Kiggans should resign. No. 3 leader Pete Aguilar said she should \u201capologize then get the hell out<\/a> of the House.\u201d The Congressional Black Caucus also called on<\/a> Kiggans to resign.<\/p>\n

Kiggans did not apologize, suggesting Democrats were only trying to distract from their loss<\/a> in the state\u2019s court. She said, however, the host “should not have used that language and I do not -and did not – condone it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiggans is one of the House\u2019s most vulnerable Republicans. Democrats attempted to redraw her district in their favor, but the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the map Friday, giving Kiggans\u2019 reelection campaign new life. Now Democrats are making clear that they will use her comments to campaign against her as they battle to beat her on Election Day.<\/p>\n

Jeffries has yet to address Kiggans directly, but he reposted Clark\u2019s statement calling for her resignation on X Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe voters of Virginia will hold her accountable at the ballot box in November,\u201d Stephenson said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats are hammering Rep. Jen Kiggans after the vulnerable Virginia Republican concurred with a Richmond radio host saying Hakeem Jeffries should get his \u201ccotton-picking hands\u201d off Virginia politics. \u201cDitto, yes, yes to that,\u201d Kiggans responded. Christie Stephenson, a spokesperson for Jeffries, called the moment a \u201cstunning failure of judgement for a so-called moderate Member of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}