Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s comeback to Vice President JD Vance’s latest personal attack on him was pure Michigan.
Vance went after El-Sayed during a 2026 midterm campaign rally in Monroe, Michigan, for GOP hopeful Mike Rogers on Thursday.
Vance, while slamming El-Sayed, said voters “deserve better than a little weasel who should shut his mouth and show a little gratitude to the country that gave him everything.”
El-Sayed hit back during an event in Marquette, Michigan.
There are “always a few very loud people, who are small and want to make us small like them,” he said.
“They’re carnival barkers; you hear them, too many of them are Ohio,” he added, in a not-so-subtle reference to Vance’s home state.
Then he addressed the vice president directly.
“You know, It’s funny, JD Vance called me a little weasel today. I’m like, ‘No, no, no, what you’re talking about is a fucking Wolverine.’”
El-Sayed soaked up the applause and, after taking a sip of water, continued: “You can take your Buckeye and you can shove it somewhere else.”
Then he said: “Ohio.”
El-Sayed graduated from the University of Michigan, whose team name is the Wolverines, while Vance graduated from Ohio State University, home of the Buckeyes.
The Wolverines and Buckeyes enjoy one of college football’s biggest rivalries.
“Here we might be Wildcats, we might be Spartans, we might be Wolverines, but we will never be Buckeyes,” he added, appearing to reference Michigan State University Spartans and Northern Michigan University Wildcats.