So-called moderate Jen Kiggans has turned her back on the Coastal Virginians she represents, and instead is siding with extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene who want to shut down the federal government and engage in a sham impeachment inquiry.
According to Newsweek, Kiggans recently praised conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene when asked about her interactions with Greene, Nancy Mace (R-SC), Chip Roy (R-TX) and Thomas Massie (R-KY):
“Marjorie Taylor Greene, she is so kind. I have nothing bad or, you know, different to say about any of these people. They’re on my team, right, they are my teammates. We all want the same things.“
It’s clear that Kiggans – who votes with Marjorie Taylor Greene nearly 90% of the time, including to restrict abortion care for servicemembers and cut veterans’ health benefits – is in lockstep with the extreme MAGA Republican agenda that fails to do anything for Virginians.
DCCC spokesperson Justin Chermol:
“By endorsing Marjorie Taylor Greene’s extreme, antisemitic agenda, Jen Kiggans has made clear exactly what type of D.C. politician she is: a party loyalist, more concerned with padding her pockets with far-right money than delivering results of Virginians.”
With an impeachment inquiry and potential government shutdown dominating the news cycle, the House Republican conference has placed the priorities of its hard-right flank front and center.
For the 18 Republicans who represent congressional districts that voted for President Joe Biden, this emphasis has meant straddling a careful line between the policy-focused centrism favored by many of their communities and the rhetoric-heavy politics preferred by the MAGA base.
Republican Congresswoman Jen Kiggans, who represents Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, may have upset this balance late last month after praising some of her party’s most conservative and controversial members in her comments at a breakfast meeting hosted by The Tidewater Liberty Partners, a group that advocates for limited government, which were recorded and later posted on YouTube.
The freshman representative, whose district the Cook Political Report rates as R+3, was asked by a member of the audience to comment specifically on her interactions with Republican Representatives Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Chip Roy of Texas, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the latter three of whom are counted among the more conservative members of Congress.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene, she is so kind,” Kiggans said. “I have nothing bad or, you know, different to say about any of these people. They’re on my team, right, they are my teammates. We all want the same things. We are all frustrated with the direction of the country.” […]
Greene, Massie, and Roy have supported restrictive stances against abortion and want to cut funding for the Ukraine War, along with backing other hardline conservative priorities. For Kiggans, a former Navy helicopter pilot who emphasized the phrase “I’m not an extremist” during her 2022 campaign, voicing solidarity with her party’s most conservative members could put her at odds with voters in her more moderate district. […]
More than just favorable comments tie Kiggans and Greene together. Kiggans’ campaign received a $2,000 donation from Greene’s campaign in late March. In terms of voting in line with Greene, Kiggans voted alongside the MAGA firebrand 89.9 percent of the time, which makes her one of the 18 House Republicans who least often cast their votes with Greene, according to The Center for American Progress. […]
Nationally, Kiggans likely will not be the only House Republican who will be forced to explain her relationship with members like Greene. Jennifer Lawless, chair of the politics department at the University of Virginia, said Speaker Kevin McCarthy has done a “terrible job” protecting his moderate members from taking tough votes, especially in wake of the impeachment inquiry brought forth against President Joe Biden.
“He’s allowing votes that put members in danger to come up,” Lawless told Newsweek. “He’s voting in favor of moving forward with an impeachment inquiry. That might be enough to give the Democrats the majority in 2024.”
In addition, Lawless said McCarthy has been “airing the Republican Party’s dirty laundry in public” by allowing intra-party divides to become public. With just a five-seat majority, small coalitions can impede progress on the larger objectives of the party.
