Hasan Piker controversy heats up Michigan Senate primary for Democrats

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s plans to rally in the state this week with controversial livestreamer Hasan Piker is roiling the Democratic primary, with other candidates blasting the decision to invite him on the campaign trail.

El-Sayed, the former Wayne County health director backed by progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), was the runner-up to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary. 

He’s earned significant progressive backing, but his decision to invite Piker to rally with him on Tuesday at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University has raised the hackles of his Democratic rivals while upping concerns for his party that if he wins the primary, he could make it easier for Republicans to take back the seat.

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), one of El-Sayed’s opponents, told Jewish Insider that Piker is “the exact opposite of someone I’d be campaigning with.”

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow compared Piker to far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, an avowed antisemite. 

The center-left think tank Third Way’s Matt Bennett took to the social platform X to call El-Sayed a “disgrace to the Democratic Party.”  

Piker has millions of followers on YouTube, Instagram and X and a large progressive following that could boost El-Sayed. The controversy that follows him derives in part from remarks he made about the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, in which more than 1,200 people were killed. He said it was a “direct consequence” of Israel and U.S. government actions, and that if rapes happened as part of the Hamas campaign, it “doesn’t change the dynamic for me.”

Piker has pushed back at accusations of antisemitism, saying his criticisms have been focused on the U.S. and Israeli governments.

Those criticisms could resonate with many voters inside Michigan, both among young progressives and Michigan’s large Muslim community.

El-Sayed has stood his ground amid the backlash to Piker’s visit, arguing that he’s meeting voters where they are — and pointing out that Piker was allowed to stream from the Democratic National Convention back in 2024. 

“Other candidates can spend their time policing where conversations happen and who gets to be a part of them if they want. Abdul is focused on showing up everywhere,” a spokesperson for the campaign told The Hill in an email.  

Michigan Democratic strategist Adrian Hemond suggested the drama around Piker could give McMorrow more room to separate herself from El-Sayed as they both woo progressives.

McMorrow, seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, has pitched herself as part of a new generation of Democratic leaders and has openly called for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to step down from leadership. Progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) endorsed McMorrow over El-Sayed last month, a sign that she’s fighting with El-Sayed for the party’s progressive wing. 

Sparse polling signals a close Democratic primary race, with all three candidates idling at less than 30 percent support and a significant portion of voters still undecided.  

“Those undecideds — they could be folks who are trying to decide between Stevens and one of those [other] two, but they could also be more progressives who are trying to decide between McMorrow and El-Sayed. We just don’t know what that is from the polling that we’ve got,” said David Dulio, a political science professor at Michigan’s Oakland University.

“So I think … we could be at an inflection point with this Piker visit, just because it’s gotten so much attention and it is controversial.”  

Stevens, who has represented Michigan’s 11st Congressional District since 2019, entered the race as the establishment favorite, a moderate with the benefit of high name ID as a sitting member of Congress. She is aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and seen as a strong pro-Israel voice in the House. 

The three candidates are fighting to succeed the retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.). The winner of the August primary is expected to take on former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who’s on track to win the GOP nod for the second cycle in a row after narrowly losing a 2024 bid.

The Michigan seat, one of just a handful of 2026 Senate toss-ups, could be make or break for either party in November as Democrats fight an uphill battle to win back the Senate majority.

In the wide-open race, the news around El-Sayed’s stops with Piker are “riling some people up,” Dulio said. “It’s making headlines here and elsewhere. We start to see the factions within the Democratic Party on display.” 

Michigan presents a major opening for Republicans just two years after Rogers came within a point of flipping former Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D-Mich.) seat, losing to then-Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) in the 2024 election as President Trump flipped the swing state by a little more than a point in the presidential race.  

Last year’s decision by Peters, who led the Democrats’ Senate campaign arm, to retire after more than a decade in the Senate set off a scramble in Great Lake State politics.  

The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates the 2026 Michigan Senate race as one of just four toss-ups among the 35 upper-chamber seats up for grabs in November. It’s one of just three toss-ups in ratings from Sabato’s Crystal Ball.  

“For the Senate, it is the best pickup opportunity that we have in the country,” said Jason Cabel Roe, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party. “There’s not a lot of pickup opportunities … so if some of our incumbents find themselves at risk, the seat becomes even more important.”  

Despite Trump’s recent win at the top of the ticket, Republicans have struggled for more than 30 years to win a Senate seat in the purple state. But Rogers, recruited by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, gave the party new hopes of a potential flip.  

Boasting an endorsement from Trump, Rogers faces no serious challenger in the Republican primary as he takes another shot at the Senate — giving him room to relax while Democrats jostle through their contentious primary.  

“Rogers is in the enviable position of holding their coats while they fight it out,” Roe said.  

Some polls suggest Rogers would see his best chance of winning if El-Sayed won the Democratic primary.

In the most recent independent polling on a hypothetical general election, a late January survey from Emerson College Polling, McMorrow beat Rogers by 3 points and Stevens bested the Republican by 4 points. Voters were tied in a test between El-Sayed and Rogers. 

Hemond argued that Democrats are “not as stressed as they should be” about November, and that Rogers is “being somewhat underestimated” by Democrats in Michigan after coming so close to the Senate in 2024.  

Still, he noted that Trump won’t be on the ticket this time, as Democrats revel in a string of off-year and special election wins across the country.  

“Rogers is probably as good as they could have hoped for, for a candidate this time around. But it’s a very, very tough environment for Republicans,” Hemond said.  

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