Vice President JD Vance put Abdul El-Sayed at the heart of his attack on the fashionable Democratic Party, pointing to the Michigan Senate nominee’s previous remarks linking criticism of Sharia legislation to White supremacy as proof that the get together has deserted its working-class roots.

Vance delivered the remarks Friday at the Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works metal plant in his Ohio hometown as neighboring Michigan gears up for one of the midterms’ most aggressive Senate races. 

El-Sayed is dealing with Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in a contest that could assist decide management of the Senate.

Vance spoke about his late grandfather, who labored as a welder for 40 years and voted Democrat because he believed it was “the party of union men.”

But Vance argued the Democratic Party has strayed from its working-class identification.

“This is the party, the Democrat party of graduate students, rather than the union and nonunion workers who make this facility run,” Vance said. 

VP JD Vance ripped Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed for linking Sharia legislation criticism to White supremacy. AP Photo/Jon Cherry

“It’s sometimes actually hard to understand what these modern Democrats actually stand for. But look what they say. Pay close attention, and they’ll leave these little hints of what they actually care about.”

Vance then turned his consideration to El-Sayed, the son of Muslim Egyptian immigrants.

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

El-Sayed criticized a 2010 poll measure that sought to bar courts from contemplating Sharia legislation. Getty Images

“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 a speech El-Sayed gave at the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) 2022 annual banquet in Oklahoma, where he was the keynote speaker. 

El-Sayed criticized a 2010 poll measure recognized as State Question 755, which sought to amend the state structure to ban courts from contemplating Sharia legislation in their selections. The measure was permitted by 70% of voters but was in the end blocked by federal courts.

El-Sayed is dealing with Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan in a race that could resolve Senate management. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

“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.

“The reason I wanted to go all the way back to the 1830s is because you can’t understand a Shariah ban without understanding the Trail of Tears,” El-Sayed continued.

“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.”

El-Sayed’s remarks at the CAIR banquet are among several statements that have drawn criticism from conservatives and Republicans who accuse the Senate candidate of viewing politics through the lens of race and faith.

Other remarks producing criticism embody El-Sayed accusing Israel of committing “genocide” and describing the Jewish state as an “apartheid,” while prompting considerations from members of the Jewish group.

However, after his main victory, El-Sayed said, “My commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own kids. We have a responsibility to take on antisemitism in all of its forms, wherever we see it.”