El-Sayed says he has ‘no plans’ to campaign with Piker as Democrats seek distance from progressive streamer
After repeatedly appearing with Hasan Piker during the Democratic primary and defending reaching the streamer’s audience, Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is dismissing questions about the relationship as a distraction from voters’ economic concerns.
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed said Aug. 26 that he has “no plans” to campaign again with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, after repeatedly appearing with him and defending the relationship during the Democratic primary campaign trail.
El-Sayed made the comment during an interview with Semafor amid growing criticism of Piker from Democratic officials ahead of the midterms. El-Sayed will face Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in the closely watched Michigan Senate election Nov. 3.
“The effort to make this race about a streamer in LA is actually kind of laughable,” El-Sayed told Semafor.
“Most people are a lot more worried about things like, what are you going to do about my groceries? What are you going to do about my healthcare?” he added. “Those are the things I’m talking about.”
Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., also sought to move the campaign beyond questions about Piker during an Aug. 26 event for El-Sayed at the University of Michigan.
“I am done, so don’t any reporter ask me again about Hasan Piker,” Dingell said. “It’s not what November is about. Republicans are trying to make it. They’re trying to divide us, and we’ve got to stop letting them try to divide us.”
The effort to distance El-Sayed’s campaign from Piker follows the Michigan Democrat’s repeated appearances with Piker during the Democratic primary. El-Sayed campaigned alongside Piker at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan in April, as Zeale News previously reported. Piker also appeared with El-Sayed at a Detroit event on the eve of the Aug. 4 Democratic primary and attended his election-night gathering.
One day before the primary, El-Sayed defended his decision to appear with Piker, arguing that he wanted to engage the streamer’s large audience of younger voters, despite their disagreements.
“The idea that somehow I am going to hold myself accountable to the worst thing he said, and then not reach out to his audience? No,” El-Sayed told CBS News on Aug. 3. “He said things [I’m] going to disagree with. I’ve said things he’s going to disagree with, and vice versa. But that’s how public conversation works.”
Piker — who has millions of followers across Twitch and other platforms and is popular among young progressives — has faced criticism for a series of controversial comments, including remarks about the Sept. 11 attacks.
During a 2019 livestream, he said “America deserved 9/11” and “totally brought it on ourselves.” He also criticized U.S. involvement in the Middle East. Piker later described his remarks as a poorly worded argument about the consequences of U.S. foreign policy rather than an endorsement of the attacks.
Piker recently revisited the controversy by telling an audience, “America does not deserve 9/11. That’s my new thing now,” prompting boos from the crowd.
In addition to campaigning with El-Sayed, Piker supported New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani during his 2025 campaign and has promoted other left-wing candidates. Mamdani and El-Sayed have both condemned Piker’s 2019 remarks about the Sept. 11 attacks.
Democrats are also responding to Piker’s remarks during an Aug. 20 livestream that efforts to portray American Jews as uniformly supportive of Israel could expose Jewish communities to violence.
“If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone’s going to come around and take action,” Piker said, “not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.”
Piker later added, “You're running around, basically tying your entire identity to a country that inevitably will be seen as basically Jewish ISIS, and you're saying, as Jews, this is all we care about. You’re making antisemitism worse.”
After clips of Piker’s stream circulated online, El-Sayed’s campaign issued an Aug. 24 statement declaring that “nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople.”
“I believe all Americans deserve the right to advocate for what they believe without fear of violence,” El-Sayed said in the statement, which was cited by CBS News. “Antisemitism is a scourge, and we need to address it in all its forms. And I stand against any rhetoric that puts the community at risk.”
The Michigan Democrat accused “politicians and pundits” of trying “to make this race about a Twitch streamer.”
A number of Democratic officials subsequently condemned Piker’s remarks, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, and Reps. Haley Stevens and Hillary Scholten of Michigan and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.
