JD Vance uses Abdul El-Sayed to hide a bankrupt GOP record

By Bram de Vries · Reporting from Amsterdam · September 16, 2026

In the world of trade, when a product is failing in the market, a competent manager looks at the ledger, identifies the defect, and fixes the supply chain.

In the world of trade, when a product is failing in the market, a competent manager looks at the ledger, identifies the defect, and fixes the supply chain. He does not simply stand in the middle of the warehouse and scream that the competitor’s warehouse is on fire. Yet, that is precisely the "strategy" Vice President JD Vance is selling to his party.

As reported by CNN, Vance spent a closed-door meeting on September 15, 2026, instructing House Republicans that if they are running against a Democrat who is "not that crazy," they should simply "talk about Abdul El-Sayed." According to NBC News, Vance has repeatedly used the Michigan Democratic Senate nominee as a foil, claiming El-Sayed has "enough material for the whole country."

Let us be blunt: this is not a political platform; it is a distraction from a bankrupt balance sheet. When you cannot defend your own numbers, you invent a monster.

The Ledger Doesn't Lie

The reason Vance is urging his colleagues to import a Michigan epidemiologist into every race from Texas to Florida is that the GOP's actual economic record is currently a liability. CNN reports a July poll showing that 65% of Americans believe President Donald Trump’s policies worsened economic conditions, and 73% feel he has ignored the country's most pressing problems.

In any business, a 65% dissatisfaction rate is a signal to pivot, to cut costs, or to innovate. But Vance’s solution is to ignore the economic frustration of the voter and instead pivot to ideological warfare. He tells candidates to be "honest" about frustrations while simultaneously instructing them to ignore their actual opponents—like James Talarico in Texas—and instead focus on the "radical" image of El-Sayed.

This is the same cynical playbook we saw in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections and the 2022 United States House of Representatives elections, where the goal was not to debate policy but to link every moderate Democrat to the furthest left-wing fringe. It is a tactic of association, not argumentation.

The Machinery of the Proxy

What we are witnessing here is a textbook revival of McCarthyism. The mechanism is identical: you identify a single, high-profile "radical" or "subversive" figure and use them as a proxy to paint an entire political class as compromised. Joseph McCarthy didn't need every government employee to be a spy; he only needed the fear of the spy to be pervasive enough to paralyze his opponents.

Vance is doing the same with Abdul El-Sayed. By casting El-Sayed as "evil" and the Democratic Party as the "party of hatred"—claims ABC7 New York notes were made during a Dallas convention—Vance creates a shortcut for the voter. He is telling the Republican candidate: Do not argue about the cost of living or the failure of the trade balance. Just tell the voter that the person across the street is a secret agent for the radicals.

The most capable advocate for this strategy would argue that El-Sayed represents the "true" face of the modern Democratic Party and that warning voters about him is a matter of national security. They would point to Mike Rogers’ claims that El-Sayed is a "terrorist sympathizer" as evidence of a genuine threat. But if El-Sayed were the true face of the party, Vance wouldn't need to tell candidates in safe districts to pretend their opponents are like him. The fact that Vance admits some Democrats are "not that crazy" proves that this is a strategic fabrication, not a warning.

A Ten Billion Dollar Smoke Screen

The final piece of this mercantile disaster is the price tag. Vance has set a $10 billion fundraising goal for the final weeks of the campaign, framing these dollars as a weapon to "fight back against the crazy left-wing media."

In the Dutch tradition, we value the transparency of the transaction. But there is no transparency here—only a massive infusion of capital designed to amplify a proxy war. The GOP is spending billions to avoid talking about why two-thirds of the country thinks their economic policies have failed.

We have seen this cycle before. The 2016 United States presidential election showed how a polarizing figure could be used to shift the entire conversation away from policy and toward identity. The 2020 United States presidential election proved that framing moderates as radicals can drive turnout, but it does nothing to solve the underlying structural rot.

Vance is betting that fear is a cheaper commodity than competence. He is wrong. You cannot build a lasting prosperity on the ruins of a character assassination. By turning the 2026 midterms into a nationwide referendum on one man in Michigan, the GOP is admitting they have no viable economic argument left to make. They are not leading a country; they are managing a scandal.

JD Vance uses Abdul El-Sayed to hide a bankrupt GOP record

The Ledger Doesn't Lie

The Machinery of the Proxy

A Ten Billion Dollar Smoke Screen

Sources