Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed refused to answer reporters’ questions this week about his ties to far-left streamer Hasan Piker, calling the subject unserious after appearing with Piker at multiple campaign events across the state over the past several months.
When reporters asked El-Sayed about Piker’s influence on his campaign, he said the race is about Michigan and that he is “not interested in a conversation about a social media person in California.”
“But I don’t want to have a conversation about a Twitch streamer in California,” El-Sayed said. “This is not a serious conversation.”
Fox News Digital pressed him on why he brought Piker to Michigan in the first place if the connection was so unimportant. El-Sayed waved off the follow-up. When another reporter asked whether he would condemn Piker directly, El-Sayed again dismissed him as “a single streamer from California.”
The exchange was captured on video in Lansing and quickly spread online, drawing sharp criticism from commentators who noted El-Sayed had campaigned alongside Piker repeatedly, including a University of Michigan rally in Ann Arbor on April 7 and a poolside content-creator event in Detroit on August 3, 2026.
Online reaction
Writer and political commentator Stephen L. Miller wrote on X, “Amazing. They are so terrified of him that she literally jumps in one question deep,” adding, “Who is the candidate here?”
Republican strategist Kyle Martinsen posted, “This keeps getting worse.” Townhall senior columnist Kurt Schlichter wrote, “I’m interested in it so there’s a problem here.”
“It’s very clear Abul El Sayed is panicking. He went from doing a half dozen campaign stops with Hasan Piker and taking glamor shots with him, to refusing to say his name. Now he’s just ‘some media person in California.’ What a pal.” — Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show”
Fox News contributor Joe Concha wrote, “He might be worse than Kamala…,” while pro-Israel activist and philanthropist Adam Milstein posted, “El Sayed again refuses to condemn Hasan Piker — who himself recently confirmed it was El Sayed that asked him to campaign for him, not the reverse.”
Piker’s own account contradicts distancing
Piker, who has roughly 10 million social media followers, has become a flashpoint within the Democratic Party after past remarks including his claim that “America deserved 9/11.” Scrutiny of the alliance intensified after Piker’s comments on a viral audio clip involving Jewish Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss, the Democratic nominee in the state’s 11th Congressional District, sparked outrage last week.
El-Sayed responded at the time with a statement saying, “I want to be crystal clear, nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople.”
But Piker has told a different story publicly. At the April rally in Ann Arbor, he said, “The reason why, when Abdul asked for me to come on this journey with him, I said yes, absolutely.” In a Friday interview with Semafor columnist David Weigel, Piker said El-Sayed had also asked him to “stump” for the campaign.
El-Sayed is running against Republican nominee Mike Rogers for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, a race that could help decide control of the U.S. Senate. Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment.
