Vice President JD Vance called Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee and an outspoken critic of Israel, 'very, very evil' at a campaign rally near Detroit on Monday. Vance accused El-Sayed of heightening racial and religious divisions while campaigning for Republican opponent Mike Rogers. The remarks aimed to stoke tensions between El-Sayed and Michigan’s Jewish community, which El-Sayed has sought to reassure since winning his party’s primary.

Over the weekend, El-Sayed, who is Muslim, met with the Jewish Democratic Caucus to apologize for a March remark deemed sympathetic to a synagogue attacker. Vance praised the rabbi and injured guard from the West Bloomfield synagogue attack, meeting them backstage. He framed El-Sayed as prioritizing group identity over national unity, claiming such thinking 'destroys the United States of America.' Other Republicans, including RNC Chair Joe Gruters and the Senate Republicans’ campaign committee, have used anti-Muslim rhetoric, with the latter referring to El-Sayed by his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, and accusing him of supporting terrorist organizations.

Rogers highlighted support from 344 Jewish Michiganders. El-Sayed responded by calling Vance 'a sock puppet' and defining evil as policies that harm working people, divide communities, and sacrifice morals for power. Vance also criticized El-Sayed for a social media comment about Vance’s deceased grandfather and interracial marriage.