El-Sayed: Ohio State owes Vance a refund

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed brought up a Midwestern college rivalry in an attack against Vice President Vance.

During a recent town hall on CBS News, Vance said that he had seen “what Abdul El-Sayed says about the war in Iran.”

“I see he — criticizing decisions that the president has made, the military’s made. But fundamentally, we are where we are, and you have to — in my view, I’d like to know, what is Abdul El-Sayed’s solution for the problem that we have right now?” Vance added.

CNN’s Laura Coates asked El-Sayed about Vance’s comments in a Sunday night interview, to which the Michigan Democrat responded, “first of all, Ohio State [University] owes that boy a refund, because he clearly didn’t get anything from his education there.”

“And, the thing we should not have done is started the war in the first place. In fact, we were in a state of peace with the potential for nuclear proliferation to be contained under the JCPOA under President Obama,” El-Sayed added, referencing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal the Obama administration struck with Iran .

Vance attended Ohio State University for his undergraduate degree, while El-Sayed went to the University of Michigan for his. The two Midwestern schools have a notably fierce rivalry.

El-Sayed is facing former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) in the race for a Senate seat in the Wolverine State, a notable swing state in the battle for the midterms this year. President Trump won Michigan in the 2024 presidential election .

The Cook Political Report rates the Rogers and El-Sayed race as a “toss-up,” but the electoral environment is quite favorable for Democrats this year, with issues like concern around energy costs, the cost of living, Trump’s approval rating and the war in Iran weighing on the GOP as Election Day inches closer.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.