💛 A quick favor, if you've got a second.
We're really happy that you chose to read one of our stories and sincerely hope you'll stick around to read more. We took our paywall down — for now — but that won't last forever, and when the gate goes back up, we'd love for you to already be on the inside.
It's free. So please enter your email here and don't forget to like and follow us on all of your favorite Social Media platforms!
Vice President JD Vance on Friday delivered a pointed critique of Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, drawing attention to the Democrat’s previous comments regarding Sharia law as evidence of what Vance characterized as Democratic abandonment of working-class principles. Speaking at Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works in Middletown, Ohio, Vance’s remarks came as Michigan enters one of the nation’s most competitive Senate contests this election cycle.
El-Sayed, a former physician, faces off against Republican former Representative Mike Rogers in a race with significant consequences for Senate control. Vance’s speech focused heavily on his late grandfather, a steelworker who spent four decades in the industry and voted Democratic based on union support and labor advocacy.
The vice president argued that Democrats have fundamentally shifted away from their historic coalition of working-class and unionized laborers, replacing them with a constituency of college-educated professionals. Vance stated the party has become “the party of graduate students, rather than the union and nonunion workers who make this facility run,” questioning its contemporary ideological foundations.
El-Sayed, whose parents immigrated from Egypt and are Muslim, came under fire from Vance over remarks made at a 2022 Council on American-Islamic Relations dinner in Oklahoma. Vance claimed El-Sayed equated criticism of Sharia law with white supremacy, a position he argued contradicted traditional Democratic working-class values.
El-Sayed’s comments addressed Oklahoma’s 2010 State Question 755, a constitutional amendment designed to bar state courts from applying Sharia law, which voters approved with 70 percent support before facing federal legal challenges. El-Sayed drew connections between opposition to Sharia law and historical persecution of Native Americans and the Tulsa massacre, contending that white supremacist ideology persists in current political discourse.
El-Sayed has drawn fire from Republicans on additional issues, including his statements describing Israeli actions as “genocide” and characterizing the nation as an “apartheid state.” Following his primary win, El-Sayed committed to supporting Jewish safety and combating antisemitism, pledging to oppose all forms of discrimination.
Fox News Digital sought comment from El-Sayed’s campaign but received no response before publication.
More Stories
Moody and Nixon Set for Florida Senate Clash in November Election
Abbott Directs Justice Department to Review Islamic Washing Stations at Texas Airports
Former Acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Haden Found Dead at San Diego Federal Building