Abdul El-Sayed Hits Back at JD Vance's False Sharia Law Attack: 'Man, This Guy Is Boring'
Key Takeaways
- •Vice President JD Vance falsely claimed at an Ohio steel plant that Abdul El-Sayed had said the United States should have Sharia law.
- •El-Sayed has explicitly opposed incorporating faith laws into U.S. law, supports the separation of church and state, and has never advocated for implementing Sharia law in the United States.
- •El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health director, is running for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters, with the election set for November 2026.
- •During an appearance on MS NOW, El-Sayed called Vance boring and pointed to billionaire Peter Thiel's heavy spending in support of Vance's 2022 Ohio Senate victory.
- •El-Sayed characterized Vance's remarks as a misguided attempt to distract from kitchen-table issues such as the cost of groceries, gas, and access to healthcare.
Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed pushed back Saturday against Vice President JD Vance, responding to a false claim the vice president made earlier in the week.
El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health director, is running for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat — the post held by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters — after an unsuccessful 2018 bid for governor, with the contest set to be decided in the November 2026 general election.
Speaking Friday at a steel plant in Ohio, Vance attacked El-Sayed over past remarks that he both mischaracterized and fabricated. "[El-Sayed] once argued not too long ago that criticisms of Sharia law were rooted in white supremacy," Vance said, before going on to falsely claim that El-Sayed has said the United States "should have Sharia law." Sharia law is a broad reference to religious law derived from the Quran, the central text of the Islamic faith.
El-Sayed's record does not support the claim. In 2022, he criticized a 2010 ballot measure that sought to ban courts from considering Sharia law in their decisions, but he mentioned "white supremacy" only in the context of criticizing broader efforts to "uproot Muslims Americans" and other marginalized groups in the United States. El-Sayed has explicitly come out against incorporating "faith laws into the laws of our country," believes in the separation of church and state, and has never advocated for implementing Sharia law in the United States.
Asked to react to Vance's comments during an appearance Saturday on MS NOW, El-Sayed smirked before answering.
"Every time JD Vance opens his mouth, the first two things I can think is, 'man, that guy is boring,' and second, Peter Thiel had to spend a ton of money to get that man elected – barely – in the state of Ohio," El-Sayed said.
The remark was a reference to Vance's path to the Senate. A former venture capitalist who once worked for Thiel, Vance won Ohio's 2022 Senate race by roughly seven percentage points — a campaign buoyed by millions of dollars in support from the billionaire tech investor — before giving up the seat in January 2025 to become vice president.
El-Sayed added that he took Vance's shot "somewhat confusedly," and characterized it as a misguided attempt to distract from the failings of the Trump administration.
"This is about trying to change the channel, they're trying to dissuade us from actually paying attention to the issues that we see laid bare when we talk about our kitchen table budget every single month," he said.
"The question Michiganders are asking is not about my parents, it's not about Sharia law, it's about whether or not you can afford your groceries, your gas, whether or not you can see a doctor if you get sick."
