With about six weeks left before Election Day, Michigan’s Senate race has become a fight over Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s relationship with left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, an association Republicans are working hard to keep in front of voters.
El-Sayed, a Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidate, narrowly won his party’s August primary despite polling that had once shown him winning easily, a result that exposed divisions among Michigan Democrats. He now faces Trump-endorsed Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a compilation ad this week highlighting appearances El-Sayed made alongside Piker during the spring and summer, including a gathering the night before the primary. The NRSC’s messaging on the ad reads: “They campaign together. They stream together. They want to destroy America together. Abdul El-Sayed and Hasan Piker are a socialist package deal.”
Rogers has released his own ads pressing the point. One released the day before the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks contrasts his background as an Army veteran and former FBI agent who worked on the bin Laden investigation with El-Sayed’s association with Piker. The ad includes footage of Piker saying, “America deserved 9/11, dude,” and of El-Sayed responding, “I’m not here to disavow people’s views.”
Another Rogers ad features the line: “This guy is a conman. He married himself to Hasan Piker. He doesn’t want you to know who he is. He wants you to think he’s something different. This guy is nothing but trouble.”
President Trump has also weighed in on Piker’s influence within the Democratic Party. Asked about the streamer during a Friday appearance in the Oval Office, Trump called him a “terrible liability” for Democrats.
“He’s got a power over some of these Democrats, and he’ll be voting that way,” Trump said. “He’s a communist, there’s no question about it. And the Democrats have a lot of communists, and the communists can hold up the party.”
El-Sayed has not disavowed Piker by name, instead referring to him in general terms as a “California streamer.” His campaign is contending with the narrow primary result while facing a coordinated push from Rogers and national Republicans to peel away Democratic voters uneasy with the Piker association ahead of the general election.
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