Senator JD Vance has criticized Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, citing El-Sayed's past remarks that linked criticism of Sharia law to white supremacy as evidence that the Democratic Party has abandoned its working-class roots.
Vance made these remarks on Friday at the Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works steel plant in Ohio. He contrasted the modern Democratic Party with the party his late grandfather, a union welder, once supported. Vance described the current party as belonging to "graduate students, rather than the union and nonunion workers who make this facility run."
"It's sometimes actually hard to understand what are these modern Democrats actually stand for?" Vance stated. "But look what they say. Pay close attention, and they'll leave these little hints of what they actually care about."
Vance specifically referenced a speech El-Sayed gave at the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) 2022 annual banquet. In that speech, El-Sayed criticized a 2010 Oklahoma ballot measure that sought to ban courts from considering Sharia law. El-Sayed argued that the forces behind such bans were connected to historical injustices, including the displacement of Native Americans, the destruction of Black Wall Street, and efforts to uproot Muslim Americans.
"The same exact forces that drove Native peoples from their land two centuries ago, destroyed Black Wall Street a century ago, bombed a building decades ago, and tried to ban Sharia law not a decade ago, those forces are alive and well today," El-Sayed said during the banquet. He further elaborated, "You can’t understand a Shariah ban without understanding the Trail of Tears. You can’t understand the efforts to uproot Muslim Americans without understanding the Tulsa massacre. You cannot understand the challenges we face today without understanding white supremacy."
Vance responded to these comments by saying, "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 papa 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 my friend."
El-Sayed's statements, including accusations that Israel has committed "genocide" and descriptions of the Jewish state as practicing "apartheid," have drawn criticism from some conservatives and Republicans. These critics accuse El-Sayed of viewing politics through a racial and religious lens. Following his primary victory, El-Sayed stated that his commitment to Jewish safety is equal to his commitment to his children's safety and that antisemitism must be confronted in all its forms.
The competitive Michigan Senate race features El-Sayed against Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers and is seen as a key contest that could influence control of the Senate. El-Sayed's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.