STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — Vice President JD Vance described Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic nominee for the Senate, as “evil” during a campaign rally here Monday.
“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,” said Vance, addressing several hundred people at an event put on by MAGA Inc., a super PAC closely aligned with President Donald Trump.
“And it’s people who see themselves not as citizens of a common nation fighting for every single person — whether they’re Jewish or Christian, whether they’re white or Black or brown — but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others, and that is how, ladies and gentlemen, you destroy the United States of America,” he added.
El-Sayed, who is Muslim, recently apologized for his response after an attack on a Michigan synagogue in March. In a video he posted to social media then, El-Sayed condemned the attack and added that “hurt people hurt people” — comments that critics have characterized as wrongly empathetic toward someone who violently targeted Jewish people.
“My comments may have been misconstrued to justify something I did not mean to justify,” El-Sayed said last week.
Vance referred to that episode Monday, as well as El-Sayed’s alliance with Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer who previously said on a livestream that “America deserved 9/11.” Piker has apologized for the remark, which El-Sayed called “dumb” this month in an appearance on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” after he won the Democratic primary.
El-Sayed faces former Rep. Mike Rogers, who also spoke at Monday’s rally, in a November election that could determine partisan control of the Senate. The seat is open because Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat, is not seeking a third term.
“When I see Abdul El-Sayed campaign around the state with somebody who said that America deserved 9/11, what I see is a man who has sympathy and compassion for people who share his religion but have nothing for people who don’t, a person who will apologize for a murderer so long as he looks the right way but will not understand the plight of an innocent child if that person has their own faith,” Vance said. “And that is the root of this terrible evil, I believe, in the United States of America that is on the rise.”
He added: “Today, you have an opportunity to speak loudly, and in November you have an opportunity to speak much more loudly against the hatred that is on the rise in the United States of America. Reject Abdul El-Sayed.”
In response to the vice president’s remarks, El-Sayed focused his criticism on both Vance and Trump.
“Evil is ripping healthcare away from working people in exchange for tax breaks for billionaires. Evil is making people pay more for groceries and gas while pushing for trade wars and actual war. Evil is dividing people for your own gain. Evil is selling out your morals for a little bit of power,” he said in a statement. “Michigan is better than being lectured to by sock puppets from Ohio and Florida.”
The MAGA Inc. event, staged in a warehouse for a local electric services contractor and tree-trimming company, featured banners that read “Protecting Americans.” It was the super PAC’s first major midterm rally to feature Vance, a likely presidential contender in 2028, as a headliner. At least one person at the event sported a red “VANCE 2028” baseball cap.
MAGA Inc. recently spent to boost Trump-endorsed Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., in a Senate primary runoff, but there has been skepticism in the broader GOP campaign universe about how engaged the organization will be in key races this fall.
A Republican strategist who is involved in Senate races and was granted anonymity to speak candidly doubted MAGA Inc. would spend heavily on the midterms. The strategist noted that the group has not yet spent much of its money.
“It should be called the MAGA Library Fund,” this person said. “That’s where that money is going to go, by and large.”
Vance’s visit also came amid a tense trade war between the U.S. and Canada. The clash is acutely felt in Michigan, which exports 39% of its goods to Canada, according to data compiled by the Progressive Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
Vance did not mention the matter, focusing instead on the administration’s anti-fraud efforts, which he leads, and Michigan’s competitive political races. He also announced a new White House crackdown on fraudulent truck drivers — an effort Vance said is aimed at rooting out undocumented immigrants and workers who do not speak English.
Vance also advocated for Rep. John James, the Republican candidate for governor, and military veteran Mike Bouchard, the GOP nominee to succeed James in Michigan’s 10th Congressional District. James is competing with state Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic nominee, to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Bouchard is running against Democrat Christina Hines, a former special victims prosecutor.
But Vance reserved his most heated rhetoric for the Senate race, in which he encouraged Michigan voters to give Rogers a chance even if they do not agree with him “100% of the time.”
In a parting shot, Vance referred to a recent social media post from El-Sayed about second lady Usha Vance. El-Sayed, playing off Vance’s remarks about his grandfather at an event in Ohio this month, mockingly wondered whether Vance would take his wife back in time to meet him.
“I actually think that the people of Michigan think it’s kind of weird when you talk about another guy’s wife,” Vance said. “But whatever you want to talk about, Abdul, keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth.”
