Topline
Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, accused Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump of “hypocrisy” after Vance attacked El-Sayed as “evil” and ordered him to keep Usha Vance’s “name the hell out of” his mouth—as the two have traded increasingly personal jabs in recent weeks.
Vice President JD Vance speaks during a rally at Universal Contracting and Urban Tree Trimming on August 31, 2026 in Sterling Heights, Michigan. (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
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Key Facts
El-Sayed said he has invoked Usha Vance in attacking the Trump administration to point out the “hypocrisy” of Vance’s “political philosophy that says that some people are somehow more American than others,” he told CNN Monday, noting that Trump once posted a photo of El-Sayed and his wife, Sarah Jukaku, who wears a hijab, alongside a photo of him and Melania Trump, captioned “two VERY DIFFERENT America’s. [sic]”
El-Sayed made the comments after Vance told him to “keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth” on Monday while campaigning for El-Sayed’s opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, at a MAGA, Inc. rally in Michigan.
El-Sayed mocked Vance in an Aug. 22 X post, writing, “so do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…” which critics have interpreted to suggest Vance’s white grandfather wouldn’t accept Usha Vance because of her Indian ethnicity.
The jab was in reference to Vance’s comments that he would “love to go back in time and tell my Papaw that there is a man who claims to stand for working people who says not only should we have Sharia law, but if you criticize it, you’re a white supremacist. That’s not my grandpa’s Democratic Party,” claiming the Democratic Party no longer represents the working class.
El-Sayed previously criticized a 2010 Oklahoma ballot measure that sought to prohibit judges from considering Islamic and international law in their rulings, telling the Oklahoma Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in 2022, “you can’t understand a Sharia ban without understanding the Trail of Tears,” recounting the history of white supremacy in Oklahoma.
Right-wing figures have taken the remarks out of context to wrongly claim El-Sayed called for imposing Sharia law in the U.S.
Tangent
El-Sayed also brought up Usha Vance during a podcast appearance in April. “What do you think is going through Usha’s head when he talks? She’s like, ‘Damn, I have to sleep with him,” El-Sayed said on the “Allen Analysis Show.” He continued: “Can you imagine, he’s got brown kids, at some point, he’s going to have a really awkward conversation with his kids, like, you made your career hating people who are different.” El-Sayed, speaking about his own children, said, “I love my brown kids, and I think my brown kids are just as American as everyone else. JD Vance has brown kids who he thinks are less American than everyone else.”
Key Background
Vance characterized El-Sayed as “evil” during Monday’s rally. “I realize that there’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today,” he said. Earlier in the day, El-Sayed invoked the years-old debunked claim that Vance wrote in his book that he had a sexual encounter with a couch, telling reporters, “we don’t have more couches here than they have in Ohio.” Michigan’s is one of six Senate races considered toss-ups by election forecasters in this year’s midterms. El-Sayed narrowly won his primary against establishment-backed candidate Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., joining a wave of progressive wins this primary season. A poll released Monday shows him ahead of Rogers by four points, though 10% of respondents said they were undecided.
further reading
El-Sayed Explains Why He Hasn’t Condemned Hasan Piker: ‘We Gotta Stop With The Cancel Culture’ (Forbes)
Latest 2026 Senate Polls: El-Sayed Leads Rogers By 4 Points In Michigan (Forbes)
Here’s What Hasan Piker Said And Why It’s So Controversial (Forbes)
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