JD Vance Unloads on Abdul El-Sayed Over Sharia Remarks: ‘That’s Not My Grandpa’s Democratic Party’

Vice President JD Vance is taking aim at Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, using the candidate’s past comments about Sharia law to argue that the modern Democratic Party has abandoned the working-class voters who once formed its backbone.

Vance delivered the criticism Friday during an appearance at Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works, a steel plant in his Ohio hometown. With neighboring Michigan preparing for one of the country’s most competitive Senate races, Vance singled out El-Sayed while contrasting today’s Democrats with the party his own family once supported.

Vance recalled that his late grandfather spent roughly 40 years working as a welder and regularly voted Democratic because he considered it the party of union workers. The vice president argued that the party has since transformed into what he called a “party of graduate students” rather than one representing the union and nonunion workers inside factories like the one where he was speaking.

His sharpest criticism focused on comments El-Sayed made during a 2022 keynote address at a Council on American-Islamic Relations banquet in Oklahoma. El-Sayed discussed efforts to prohibit courts from considering Sharia law and connected those efforts to a broader history of discrimination and white supremacy in the United States.

The controversy centered on Oklahoma State Question 755, a 2010 ballot measure that sought to prevent state courts from considering Sharia law in their decisions. Approximately 70% of voters approved the measure, but federal courts ultimately blocked it from taking effect.

During his 2022 remarks, El-Sayed connected opposition to Sharia with historical events including the Trail of Tears and the Tulsa Race Massacre. He argued that contemporary efforts targeting Muslim Americans could not be properly understood without examining the country’s history of racial and religious discrimination.

Vance characterized those comments differently, arguing that El-Sayed had effectively branded criticism of Sharia law as white supremacy. He said he would have liked to tell his grandfather that someone claiming to represent working people could hold such views, before declaring, “That’s not my grandpa’s Democratic Party.”

The attack comes as El-Sayed campaigns against former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers for Michigan’s open Senate seat. The contest is expected to be one of the most closely watched races of the 2026 midterms and could play an important role in determining which party controls the Senate next year.

El-Sayed has emerged as a prominent figure on the Democratic Party’s progressive wing following his primary victory. His previous comments about Israel have also generated controversy, including accusations that Israel has committed “genocide” and operates an “apartheid” system, positions that have prompted criticism from Republicans and concerns among some Jewish voters.

El-Sayed has responded to those concerns by emphasizing his opposition to antisemitism. Following his primary victory, he said his commitment to protecting Jewish Americans was comparable to his commitment to protecting his own children and argued that antisemitism must be confronted wherever it appears.

Vance’s broader argument went beyond El-Sayed personally. The vice president portrayed the Michigan nominee as representative of an ideological transformation within the Democratic Party, contrasting progressive activists and highly educated voters with the blue-collar Democrats who once dominated industrial communities across the Midwest.

That argument could become increasingly important as Republicans campaign throughout Michigan, Ohio and other former Democratic strongholds ahead of November. Vance, whose own political identity has been closely tied to the struggles of working-class communities, is attempting to convince those voters that the Democratic Party their parents and grandparents supported no longer exists.

With Michigan’s Senate race potentially helping determine control of Congress, El-Sayed’s record is likely to remain a major Republican target. Vance has now provided a preview of that strategy, turning the Democrat’s years-old remarks about Sharia law into a broader indictment of how far he believes the party has moved from its working-class roots.