Vice President JD Vance has labeled Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed as "crazy" and an "odd guy," predicting he would be a "terrible senator" for the state.
Vance’s remarks came days after El-Sayed secured the Democratic nomination and subsequently mocked Vance for "sucking up to power." The Vice President stated in a Fox News interview that El-Sayed’s focus on personal insults rather than policy indicates a flawed approach to representing Michiganders.
"I think the guy’s crazy and would be a terrible senator for the people of Michigan," Vance told Fox News. "I think that it’s telling that instead of talking about what he wants to do to make the lives of Michiganders better, he takes personal insults at me. It comes with the territory."
El-Sayed's comments, which Vance was responding to, were made to MS NOW. El-Sayed questioned Vance's "Ohio charisma" and referenced Vance's past criticism of Donald Trump before becoming his running mate. He also alluded to Vance's association with Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel and his book "Hillbilly Elegy."
"That guy. I think we’ve had enough of him. The last thing that he said that made any sense was ‘Hillbilly Elegy’, after he said that Donald Trump had no business being president of anything," El-Sayed said. "That was the last time he made sense, and then he decided to suck up to power."
This exchange follows a previous instance where Vance criticized El-Sayed, calling him a "guy who holds himself out as a working class hero" but is interested in "flooding his state and his country with low-wage immigrants."
El-Sayed is set to face former Rep. Mike Rogers in the general election. Rogers narrowly lost his previous race by approximately 20,000 votes in 2024.