Abdul El-Sayed Fires Back at JD Vance’s Snide Attack, Turns Michigan Crowd Into a Show of Defiance
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Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed answered Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s personal insult with a sharp, crowd-pleasing rebuke that leaned into Michigan pride and college rivalries.
Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed responded to a sneering personal attack by Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance during a series of campaign events in Michigan. Vance, speaking at a rally for GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers in Monroe, went after El-Sayed with a childish insult, calling him a “little weasel” and telling him to be grateful to the country.
El-Sayed later addressed the comment at a gathering in Marquette, making clear that bullies rely on noise, not substance. He said that “there are always a few very loud people, who are small and want to make us small like them.” He pointed to Vance’s Ohio roots, describing the critics as “carnival barkers” and noting that many of them were from Ohio.
The candidate then turned the mascot reference into a sharp comeback, saying, “JD Vance called me a little weasel today. I’m like, ‘No, no, no, what you’re talking about is a Wolverine.’” He continued, “You can take your Buckeye and you can shove it somewhere else,” while invoking the rivalry between the University of Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes. El-Sayed concluded by saying, “Here we might be Wildcats, we might be Spartans, we might be Wolverines, but we will never be Buckeyes,” invoking other Michigan college teams with a defiant edge.
The exchange exposed the increasingly personal tone of the 2026 midterm campaign in Michigan and showed how both sides are using regional identity and college symbolism to energize supporters.