Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed renewed his criticism of Vice President JD Vance and brought Vance’s wife into the dispute over the weekend after the vice president accused El-Sayed of defending Sharia law and portraying its critics as white supremacists.
Vance raised the issue during a recent address to American workers, invoking his grandfather while arguing that El-Sayed’s views were far removed from the Democratic Party his grandfather knew.
“El-Sayed, this guy running for senate in Michigan, he once argued not too long ago that criticisms of Sharia law were rooted in white supremacy. I’d love to go back in time and tell my Papaw that there’s 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 Papaw’s Democrat Party, my friends,” Vance said.
Vance on El-Sayed: I 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 are a white supremacist. pic.twitter.com/t7RqCCJt5Y
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 21, 2026
El-Sayed responded on social media by turning the reference to Vance’s grandfather toward the vice president’s wife, Usha.
“So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…” El-Sayed wrote.
Usha Vance and her family are Hindu and do not adhere to Islamic Sharia law.
The latest remark follows previous criticism from El-Sayed involving Vance’s wife and family. El-Sayed declined earlier this year to apologize for controversial comments he made about them.
The controversy also comes amid scrutiny of El-Sayed’s own relationship with Sharia law. His campaign has confirmed that he follows Sharia in his personal life, after comments from 2009 resurfaced in which he characterized doing so as a lifelong “obligation.”
El-Sayed subsequently addressed Vance’s remarks during an interview, arguing that the vice president’s comments were intended to portray him as somehow less American because of his background and religious beliefs.
“He’s painting this picture of going back in time to talk to his Papaw, about me. Now why is he pointing to me? Why is Donald Trump pointing to me? They’re pointing to me to try and say somehow I’m less of an American than they are. What does that have to do with? I don’t know, the color of my skin, how I pray? But the confusing thing about it is that he thinks there are some people who are more American than others because they can point to their Papaw who was here earlier.”
El-Sayed: Well, I’ll tell you this. Every time J.D. Vance opens his mouth, the first two things I can think are, man, that guy is boring. And second, Peter Thiel had to spend a ton of money to get that man elected, barely in the state of Ohio.
But the confusing thing about it… pic.twitter.com/nfpbPRgoN2
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 23, 2026
El-Sayed then again invoked Vance’s family, questioning how the vice president could reconcile that alleged implication with the immigrant background of his in-laws.
“And my question to him is simply why is it… how do you look your parents-in-law in the eye and say that somehow they’re less American than you are. Because that’s what he’s implying there,” he added.
The increasingly heated exchange comes as El-Sayed faces Republican nominee Mike Rogers in what polling indicates could be a highly competitive Michigan Senate contest. A recent AARP survey found Rogers and El-Sayed virtually tied in the general election race.
{Matzav.com}
