Abdul El-Sayed sparks pushback over ‘racist’ and ‘sexist’ Usha Vance, Natalie Harp posts

Abdul El-Sayed is running for Senate in Michigan, and over the weekend he decided the smart move was to take shots at Usha Vance and Natalie Harp in a way that landed as both racist and sexist, depending on which post you're reading. That's not a hot take from us. That's the reaction from people across the aisle who saw the posts and winced. When your own side is quietly deleting screenshots, you've done something wrong.

Here's what's frustrating about it. El-Sayed isn't some random poster nobody's heard of. He's a Rhodes Scholar, a former Michigan health director, a guy who's supposed to be the credible, polished alternative to whatever caricature people have in their heads of the online left. Instead he reached for the laziest possible material, mocking a woman for her ethnicity and appearance rather than anything she's actually said or done in public life. If you can't find a substantive line of attack against Usha Vance, maybe sit that one out.

The bigger issue is what this says about the standards Democrats apply to their own candidates. Imagine a Republican Senate hopeful posting anything remotely comparable about a Democratic spouse. It would be the lead story on every network for a week, and rightly so. El-Sayed gets a news cycle of mild embarrassment and a "context" defense from sympathetic outlets, and then everyone moves on. That double standard is exhausting, and voters notice it even when the press doesn't.

None of this means Usha Vance or Natalie Harp are above criticism. Nobody in public life is. But there's a difference between criticizing someone's record and mocking who they are. El-Sayed picked the second option, and Michigan voters deserve better from a man asking them for six years in the Senate.