Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a self-described democratic socialist, drew sharp condemnation from critics across the political spectrum after posting remarks on X that appeared to reference Second Lady Usha Vance's Indian heritage, and separately targeted a female aide to President Trump.

El-Sayed, 41, the Democratic nominee for Michigan's U.S. Senate seat, fired off the posts on a Saturday after Vice President JD Vance went after him at a rally in Ohio. Vance had invoked his late maternal grandfather, James "Papaw" Vance, while arguing that El-Sayed's previously stated views on Sharia law would have been "completely alien" to his grandfather's world. El-Sayed's response did not address the substance of that critique. Instead, he turned to Usha Vance.

"So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no..." El-Sayed wrote on X. The implication, that Vance's own grandfather would not have accepted the vice president's wife, a daughter of Indian immigrants raised in California, struck critics as a racial jab dressed up as a joke.

El-Sayed's post implied Vance's grandfather wouldn't accept an Indian daughter-in-law

Usha Vance, a Yale Law School-trained lawyer, met JD Vance while both were students there. They married in 2014 and have four children, the youngest born just last month. She has spoken publicly about the demands of raising a large family while supporting her husband's career, and has opened up about her literacy push for American children in recent months.

El-Sayed's post reduced all of that to a punchline about race and family acceptance. And it was not his only target that day.

Earlier on Saturday, El-Sayed had also directed a post at Natalie Harp, an aide to President Trump, after Trump had criticized El-Sayed at a rally over his association with socialist streamer Hasan Piker, the same commentator who once declared that "America deserved 9/11." El-Sayed's response to the Trump broadside was not to defend or distance himself from Piker. It was to address Harp directly: "Natalie, I think he's had a little too much iPad for the week. He needs his rest."

The pattern, bypassing the men who attacked him and instead directing his fire at women connected to them, did not go unnoticed.

Tudor Dixon asked how El-Sayed would treat female staffers in Congress

Tudor Dixon, a former Republican candidate for Michigan governor, framed the posts as a character question for voters. "He goes after Usha. He goes after Natalie [Harp]. This coward picks on women who are not in his fight," Dixon stated. "Imagine how he would treat female staffers in the halls of Congress."

GOP strategist Matt Whitlock posted screenshots of El-Sayed's remarks about both women and offered a blunt assessment.

"This is what I'm talking about. Just a bad campaign, bad candidate, bad instincts. Sitting at home on a Saturday morning tweeting bad takes that any normal campaign would shut down."

Rep. Brandon Gill, a Republican from Texas, zeroed in on the racial assumption embedded in El-Sayed's Usha Vance post. "Why does Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed just assume that all White midwestern grandparents are racist?" Gill wrote on X. Political commentator Ryan Girdusky put a finer point on it: "If you're a rural White American living in Michigan, just remember El-Sayed believes you're a racist."

JD Vance has been open about his faith and values shaping his public life. He has spoken about the role of Christianity in politics and about the family life he and Usha have built together. The couple recently navigated the arrival of their fourth child, a moment that drew public interest in its own right.

El-Sayed's post treated that family as a prop, something to weaponize against the vice president by suggesting his own grandfather's generation would have rejected his wife's heritage.

Even some Democrats flagged El-Sayed's conduct as a liability

The criticism was not confined to Republicans. An X account operated by Democrats supporting Mike Rogers, El-Sayed's Republican opponent in the Michigan Senate race, posted a pointed rebuke: "This is why there were ads in the primary correctly highlighting how sexist and misogynistic Abdul is. He has so much contempt for women. If you're over the politics of division. Reject Abdul El-Sayed."

Former Florida state Rep. Ben Graber added: "El Sayed is now attacking Wives of US leaders? What a guy." Journalist Emily Schrader called El-Sayed "a racist creep."

This was not the first time El-Sayed's comments about the Vance family drew fire. Fox News reported that El-Sayed had previously made derogatory comments about the Vances' marriage, including referencing their "Brown kids" and urging Usha Vance to "get out" of the relationship. In those earlier remarks, El-Sayed said of Vance: "He's got to look at his kids and be like, Yeah, those are Brown kids, they're mine," while arguing that Vance's political philosophy was "incoherent" given his family's racial makeup. Dixon responded to those comments as well, saying: "Imagine smugly trying to break up a family because you don't believe a White man can love his children."

Usha Vance has not responded publicly to El-Sayed's latest posts. She has, however, shown a willingness to step into public debate when the situation calls for it. In a Fox News appearance, she defended her husband's controversial "childless cat ladies" remarks, arguing the comments were taken out of context and that his real point was about how difficult it can be to raise children in America.

"He would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family, who really was struggling with that," she said at the time.

El-Sayed's campaign has not responded

The Daily Mail contacted the El-Sayed campaign for comment. No response had been published at the time of the report. El-Sayed himself had not publicly clarified the intent behind either post or addressed the backlash directly.

The silence left the posts to speak for themselves. And what they said was plain: El-Sayed, a candidate who styles himself as a progressive champion, responded to political attacks from two of the most powerful men in the country by going after women who were not part of the exchange. One post carried a racial insinuation about the vice president's wife. The other was a dismissive quip aimed at a female White House aide.

For a candidate running in a swing state he needs to win, the instinct was telling. El-Sayed did not engage the policy argument Vance raised. He did not defend his record. He reached for the cheapest shot available, and aimed it at someone who was not even in the fight.

Usha Vance has built a public profile around family, education, and quiet strength. El-Sayed's decision to make her a target tells voters less about the Vance family than it does about the kind of senator he would be.

When a candidate's first instinct under pressure is to drag someone's wife into the fight, the problem is not the platform, it's the person.