Usha Vance responded with warmth and restraint after Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed criticized JD Vance and implied the vice president’s family might not have embraced the Second Lady.
El-Sayed’s comment came after Vance referenced his late maternal grandfather, James “Papaw” Vance, while taking aim at the left-wing candidate. In response, El-Sayed wrote: “So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…”
Asked about the remark during an appearance on Fox News, Second Lady Usha Vance chose not to escalate the dispute, instead offering a measured and personal answer.
“I have to admit, I kind of laughed,” she said. “Because yes, I never met JD’s Mamaw and Papaw. But I do know and love the children that they raised, his mom, his aunt and uncle. And they have never been anything but incredibly loving.”
Usha Vance also pointed to her close relationship with the vice president’s maternal aunt, Lori Meibers, describing their bond as especially meaningful.
“His aunt is like a second mother to me and so I have to think that if they raised children like that, they would have been loving as well. And I would have really, really, really loved to have met them.”
El-Sayed, who is seeking a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, sparked the backlash Saturday after his response to Vance appeared to make a pointed reference to the Second Lady’s Indian heritage.
The remark quickly drew criticism from opponents who accused El-Sayed of targeting a politician’s spouse and crossing a personal line. Some critics called him a “racist creep” and raised questions about how he would treat women if elected to Congress.
Usha offered a heartfelt response after Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed ripped JD Vance and suggested the VP’s family would not have been accepting of the Second Lady
El-Sayed was initially responding to Vance invoking his late maternal grandfather, James ‘Papaw’ Vance, to criticize the leftist candidate, with El-Sayed saying: ‘So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…’
The extraordinary exchange began after Vance attacked El-Sayed over his previously stated views about Sharia law during a rally in Ohio.
Vance invoked his late maternal grandfather, James ‘Papaw’ Vance, while arguing that El-Sayed’s views would have been completely alien to the world in which his grandfather lived.
El-Sayed responded by bringing Usha Vance into the fight.
‘So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…’ he wrote on X.
The comment appeared to suggest that Vance’s Indian-American wife might have faced hostility from his white Midwestern grandfather – an implication that quickly prompted outrage from conservatives and other critics.
The escalating row comes at a crucial moment for El-Sayed, who is running against Republican former congressman Mike Rogers in what has become a fiercely contested Michigan Senate race.
And critics quickly sought to portray the Usha Vance post as something more serious than an ill-judged social-media barb.
Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants, was raised in California and met her future husband while the pair attended Yale Law School.
Second Lady Usha took a classy route in response when asked about El-Sayed’s comments
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Vance invoked his late maternal grandfather, James ‘Papaw’ Vance, while arguing that El-Sayed’s views would have been completely alien to the world in which his grandfather lived
El-Sayed triggered a furious backlash after responding to JD Vance by asking: ‘So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…’
The couple married in 2014 and have since had four children, with the second lady giving birth to their youngest child last month.
She has generally maintained a substantially lower political profile than her husband despite becoming one of the most recognizable spouses in Washington following Vance’s elevation to the vice presidency.
The firestorm intensified because Usha Vance was not the only woman connected to the Trump administration whom El-Sayed targeted online Saturday.
Earlier the same day, he directed another post at Natalie Harp, an aide to President Donald Trump who has herself become the subject of intense political and online scrutiny.
Trump had blasted El-Sayed during a rally over his association with socialist streamer Hasan Piker, who generated outrage with his past declaration that ‘America deserved 9/11.’
El-Sayed responded to the president’s attack by addressing Harp directly.
‘Natalie, I think he’s had a little too much iPad for the week. He needs his rest,’ El-Sayed wrote.
GOP strategist Matt Whitlock posted screenshots of El-Sayed’s remarks about both women and argued they demonstrated a wider problem with his candidacy.
Vice President JD Vance and second-lady Usha Vance met while studying at Yale Law School and married in 2014; Usha, the daughter of Indian immigrants, is a lawyer
The Democrat did not explicitly explain what he meant, but critics interpreted the remark as an insinuation that Vance’s White Midwestern grandfather would have been hostile toward Usha because of her Indian heritage
‘This is what I’m talking about,’ Whitlock wrote.
‘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.’
Tudor Dixon, the former Republican candidate for Michigan governor, went further, arguing that the posts should raise questions about how El-Sayed would behave toward women working alongside him on Capitol Hill.
‘He goes after Usha. He goes after Natalie [Harp]. This coward picks on women who are not in his fight,’ Dixon said.
‘Imagine how he would treat female staffers in the halls of Congress.’
Our News Outlet has contacted the El-Sayed campaign for comment.
