Dem
52
Ties
2
GOP
46
Hasan Piker is a left-wing activist who is widely accused of being antisemitic in his Twitch streams and interviews. For example, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) wrote a letter to Amazon, which owns Twitch, that includes this paragraph:
Hasan Piker has emerged as the poster child for the post-October 7th outbreak of antisemitism in America. Mr. Piker has demonized Orthodox Jews as "inbred" and has dehumanized a Jewish man as a "bloodthirsty pig dog": the association of Jews with pigs and blood-thirst is textbook antisemitism. Mr. Piker has all but exposed himself as an apologist for the sexual violence and savage rapes of October 7th. "It doesn't matter if rape happened on October 7th. It doesn't change the dynamic for me," Mr. Piker declares before finally admitting that "Palestinian resistance" (his euphemism for terrorism) is not perfect."
Then it goes on from there, accusing Piker of supporting the Houthis and other terrorists and encouraging men to date-rape women on college campuses. Here is the entire letter.
Piker also said that Jewish Americans who support Israel have themselves to blame for any violence that may befall them. That sounds a lot like excusing it, maybe even encouraging violence.
One might think that politicians would steer clear of this guy. But Piker campaigned for Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) in the primary and despite pressure to disavow Piker, El-Sayed, who has also been accused of antisemitism, has refused to do so. This has rubbed some Michigan voters the wrong way, especially after a Hezbollah-inspired attack on the largest Jewish temple in Michigan earlier this year. El-Sayed wants those voters but also wants Piker's fans, so he is trying to walk a fine line here. He also doesn't want to come across as a flip-flopper. Still, he is being very careful not to denounce Piker. El-Sayed said that Piker is just a streamer from California who does not speak for his campaign. But he did invite Piker to Michigan to campaign for him. It looks like he wants the antisemitic vote but without saying he wants the antisemitic vote. It's tricky.
A recent poll from Michigan State University shows the problem: El-Sayed is underperforming the other top Democrat on the ballot. Democrat Jocelyn Benson, who is running for governor, is leading her Republican opponent by 10 points, 49% to 39%, while El-Sayed is leading his Republican opponent by only 4 points, 48% to 44%. Clearly there are an appreciable number of Democrats El-Sayed has not won over. There is also a generational issue here. Benson does best with older voters while El-Sayed does best with younger voters. But there are more older voters than younger ones, so the net result is a landslide for Benson and a close race for El-Sayed. (V)