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Twitch streamer Hasan Piker said that Democratic Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed asked him to “stump” for his campaign during an interview Friday following the intense backlash the Democratic politician has faced for appearing with him.
Piker spoke to Semafor columnist David Weigel about the backlash he has received from Democrats since appearing on the campaign trail with El-Sayed, which he claimed was El-Sayed’s idea, not his.
“He asked me to stump for him, and I had not considered that ever before,” Piker said. “I’d never really delivered a speech like that before.”
EL-SAYED PALS AROUND WITH FAR-LEFT STREAMER HASAN PIKER THE DAY BEFORE CRUCIAL MICHIGAN SENATE ELECTION
Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, talks poolside with streamer Hasan Piker at a party for content creators supporting his campaign, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, in Detroit. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)
Piker added that he had previously decided to get more involved with politics through New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign but did not face significant backlash for that effort compared to campaigning for El-Sayed. He explained that after campaigning for El-Sayed, establishment Democrats and think tanks like Third Way came out to attack him.
“I’ll admit I didn’t realize how much the media would think that this is different,” he continued. “I had no idea that in the mindset of, you know, people in D.C., in the mindset of like, establishment media, doing a rally with a politician was apparently far more consequential than flying out to Dearborn and, like, working out with him, doing profiles, fundraising for him. I didn’t realize that it was a very different thing,” Piker said.
He continued, “I did not realize that people would get so mad about it because, from my perspective, who cares if I’m doing a rally with a politician? I’m like, I’ve already had the guy on, like, a hundred times on the broadcast. You know, I’ve fundraised for him. I like him a lot. I have my disagreements with him, too, of course. But that was when the onslaught came in.”
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Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment.
Abdul El-Sayed, left, has faced backlash for appearing with Hasan Piker, right, on the campaign trail. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)
El-Sayed has received intense scrutiny for campaigning with Piker despite the far-left Twitch streamer’s history of controversial statements, such as claiming America “deserved” 9/11.
More recently, El-Sayed has attempted to distance himself from Piker after he suggested Jewish Americans were “making antisemitism worse” by voicing their support of Israel. El-Sayed has since repeatedly referred to Piker as “a streamer from California” with no relevancy to the race.
“I am not interested in a conversation about a social media person in California. And to folks who want to make this about a social media person in California, let’s not forget what actually matters in our politics, what our politics are really about,” El-Sayed told reporters during Saturday’s state Democratic Party Nominating Convention.
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He added, “I don’t ever want my comments to hurt anybody’s feelings. It’s important to me that people understand that I take serious [sic] the pain of all communities in this state. But I don’t want to have a conversation about a Twitch streamer in California. This is not a serious conversation.”
Abdul El Sayed, left, has distanced himself from Hasan Piker, right, after his recent comments on Jewish Americans. (Evan Cobb for The Washington Post via Getty Images; Dia Dipasupil/FilmMagic)
In a comment to Digital, El-Sayed also apologized for his past comments made in response to an attack on a Michigan synagogue in March, where he remarked, “Hurt people, hurt people.”
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“To anybody who feels like my comments may have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention. We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned it outright,” El-Sayed told Digital. “What I was trying to do was offer context for why it happened, but it wasn’t the time for context and you don’t ever want to trample somebody’s pain.”
