Beverly Vance Aikins, the mother of Vice President JD Vance, said she would “probably punch” Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed if she encountered him, after taking issue with his repeated public comments about her son’s wife and children.
Aikins made the remarks during a wide-ranging interview with OutKick and Fox News host Tomi Lahren, sharply criticising El-Sayed over comments she viewed as personal attacks on the Vance family. Her comments add a new personal dimension to the growing political clash surrounding El-Sayed’s Senate campaign and his criticism of the US vice president.
What Did Vance’s Mother Say About El-Sayed?
Asked how she felt about El-Sayed’s comments toward the vice president’s family, Aikins said the remarks made her genuinely angry, adding “I think they’re jealous, honestly” before describing her son as a 42-year-old vice president with “a beautiful wife” and four children. She said she did not intend to act on her frustration, framing the punch remark as something said largely in jest, and added that the comments carried “no merit” among her family.
Why Is She Responding Now?
Aikins made the comments during an interview that also touched on her recovery from opioid addiction and her family’s portrayal in the Netflix adaptation of “Hillbilly Elegy”. Her remarks come after clips resurfaced of El-Sayed’s earlier comments about second lady Usha Vance and the couple’s children, reigniting a public back-and-forth between the Michigan Senate candidate and the vice president’s family.
What Comments Has El-Sayed Made About The Vance Family?
During an April appearance on “The Allen Analysis Show”, El-Sayed said Vance “has brown kids who he thinks are less American than everyone else,” and suggested he hoped the vice president’s children would eventually “undo” their father’s politics. He also appeared to suggest the second lady should leave her husband, telling her to “get out” during earlier remarks. More recently, after Vance criticised El-Sayed’s stated adherence to Sharia law during a rally in Ohio, El-Sayed responded with a comment referencing Usha Vance’s Indian heritage, asking whether JD would be “taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw.”
How Has JD Vance Responded?
The vice president addressed El-Sayed’s remarks while campaigning in Michigan for Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers, telling the crowd he found it “kind of weird when you talk about another guy’s wife.” He went on to warn El-Sayed directly to “keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth,” adding that she was “way out of your league.” The exchange marked one of the more pointed moments in a campaign that has increasingly drawn the vice president himself into a race for a seat he does not hold.
What Has Usha Vance Said?
The second lady has separately pushed back on El-Sayed’s comments in her own public remarks, following a pattern in which both members of the Vance family have responded directly to the Michigan candidate’s attacks rather than leaving them unaddressed. Fox News Digital said it reached out to both the vice president’s office and El-Sayed’s campaign for comment on the latest remarks from Aikins.
Where Does The Michigan Senate Race Stand?
El-Sayed secured the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s open Senate seat following the state party’s nominating convention in late August, setting up a general election contest against Rogers, the Republican nominee. The increasingly personal exchanges between El-Sayed and the Vance family have added a sharp, high-profile edge to what is expected to be one of the most closely watched Senate races of the midterm cycle.
