Abdul El-Sayed invokes Usha Vance as he fires back at JD Vance over ‘Papaw’ remarks

WASHINGTON, DC: Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Saturday, August 22, invoked second lady Usha Vance in a social media response to Vice President JD Vance’s criticism of him, asking whether Vance would take his wife “back in time” to meet his grandfather.

The post came a day after Vance attacked El-Sayed’s past comments on Sharia law during a visit to Ohio.

Critics accused El-Sayed of referencing Usha’s Indian heritage and of bringing the vice president’s wife into a political dispute that did not involve her.

Abdul El-Sayed fires back after JD Vance’s Sharia criticism

Vance, on Friday, August 21, criticized El-Sayed during an appearance at the Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works steel plant in his hometown in Ohio, arguing that the Democratic Party had moved away from its traditional working-class base.

Vance invoked his late grandfather, whom he calls “Papaw” and who worked as a welder for four decades and voted Democratic because he viewed the party as representing union workers. Vance then turned to El-Sayed’s past comments about Sharia law.

“He once argued, not too long ago, that criticisms of Sharia law were rooted in White supremacy,” Vance said.

“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.”

Vance was referring to remarks El-Sayed made at the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ 2022 annual banquet in Oklahoma.

El-Sayed had criticized a 2010 Oklahoma ballot measure that sought to prohibit courts from considering Sharia law in their decisions.

“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 at the time.

“You cannot understand the challenges we face today without understanding White supremacy."

After Vance’s remarks, El-Sayed responded on X by bringing the vice president’s wife into the exchange. “So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…,” El-Sayed wrote.

Usha Vance mention sparks backlash against El-Sayed

El-Sayed’s response prompted criticism from Republican lawmakers and political commentators.

Rep Brandon Gill, R-Texas, responded by asking, “Why does Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed just assume that all White midwestern grandparents are racist?”

Former Florida state Rep Ben Graber wrote, “El Sayed is now attacking Wives (sic) of US leaders? What a guy.”

GOP strategist Matt Whitlock also criticized El-Sayed’s remarks, stating, "Just a bad campaign, bad candidate, bad instincts. Sitting at home on a Saturday morning tweeting bad takes that any normal campaign would shut down."

El-Sayed is set to face Republican Mike Rogers in the November midterms, with the contest among the races that could affect control of the Senate.