Jen Kiggans, a Republican congresswoman, is facing calls from Democrats to resign for agreeing with a radio host after he said the top US House Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, should get his “cotton-picking hands off of Virginia”.

Kiggans, who represents a swing district in southeastern Virginia, has said she was agreeing with the host that Jeffries – who is the first Black American to lead a party in Congress – should stay out of the state’s politics. She also said she did not condone the host’s language, which multiple Democrats criticized as racist.

The term “cotton-picking” is widely considered offensive due to the US history of slavery, when enslaved people – the overwhelming majority of whom were Black – picked cotton.

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

Kiggans replied: “That’s right. Ditto – yes, yes to that.”

She 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’s statement said.

Christie Stephenson, a spokesperson for Jeffries, issued a statement on Tuesday saying that Kiggans had an opportunity to “disavow the vile, racist and dehumanizing comments from … Rich Herrera” but instead “she doubled down”.

“It was a stunning failure of judgment and leadership” for someone “representing a large, vibrant African American community in Virginia”, Stephenson’s statement added.

The statement also said it is “pathetic” to “endorse disgusting, vile and racist language”.

Democrat Elaine Luria, a former congresswoman who is running to unseat Kiggans in the November midterm elections, demanded her opponent apologize.

“I grew up in the South. I know what these racist dog whistles mean,” Luria said in a statement that called Kiggans’s comments “disgusting and beneath any elected official”.

“She should immediately and publicly apologize and denounce these racist remarks that have no place in our commonwealth or our politics,” Luria said.

Katherine Clark, the US House minority whip, and California’s 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,” Aaron Rouse, a Democratic Virginia state senator, said in a statement. “We are no longer enslaved on plantations. We now hold positions of power our ancestors fought for.”

On Tuesday morning, Kiggans’s interview with Herrera was not available on the Richmond’s Morning News archive on the Apple Podcasts platform. It was listed on the Richmond’s Morning News website but didn’t seem as if it would download. A spokesperson for Audacy, which owns the radio station airing Richmond’s Morning News, has been asked for comment.

Republicans currently hold slim majorities in the US Senate and House, but control is up for grabs in the midterm elections, and Kiggans’s seat is seen as one of the most competitive in the country. After his second US presidency began in January 2025, Donald Trump launched a national mid-decade redistricting battle between the two parties that is also playing out in Virginia.

Virginia voters on 21 April approved a new Democratic-drawn congressional map in a special election that could have flipped four Republican US House seats. But the state supreme court on 8 May 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 US supreme court to revive the congressional map designed to boost their party’s chances in November’s midterm elections.

Reuters and Ramon Antonio Vargas contributed reporting