Rep. Haley Stevens told reporters hours before Tuesday's Michigan Democratic Senate primary that her opponent Abdul El-Sayed should sever his ties with streamer Hasan Piker, calling it a matter of basic political judgment. "I do think his rhetoric should be denounced. I do think that my opponent should distance himself from him," Stevens said in a press gaggle.
The remarks came after El-Sayed spent the night before Election Day at a pool party hosted by a Detroit content creator. Piker, progressive House candidates Melat Kiros and Chris Rabb—both members of the Democratic Socialists of America—and Michigan Democratic state Rep. Donavan McKinney all attended, according to photographs taken at the scene.
Kiros and Rabb are DSA members running in House primaries of their own, making their presence at an El-Sayed event a visible signal of where his coalition sits on the Democratic left. Stevens, by contrast, said she spent Election Day eve with Rep. Hillary Scholten and former Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
Piker commands roughly 10 million followers across social media platforms and has made multiple campaign-trail appearances with El-Sayed. The association has drawn sustained attention because of a string of past statements. A recently resurfaced clip shows him saying, "I never would and never will criticize Mao Zedong. One of the great leaders of this world." The quote reemerged after Piker addressed a group of college students last month wearing an outfit widely described as resembling the dress of former communist leader Mao Zedong.
Piker has also said publicly that "America deserved 9/11" and has made statements about Hamas that human rights groups condemned as endorsing political violence. He has also made remarks about the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson that drew criticism.
Stevens was direct about the political damage she believes the association causes. "We don't need these demagogues or people citing allegiance to Mao coming into Michigan," she said. She did not accuse El-Sayed of sharing those views but argued that tolerating the relationship was itself a political choice with real consequences.
El-Sayed has acknowledged publicly that he does not agree with all of Piker's positions. He has not cut off the relationship or declined campaign-trail appearances with the streamer, and he did not distance himself from the pool party before the primary vote.
The primary placed Stevens and El-Sayed in a contested race for the Democratic nomination to take on Republican Mike Rogers in November. AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying organization, spent heavily against El-Sayed, running a wave of negative advertising on Stevens's behalf. That spending is expected to continue in the general election, with Rogers as the beneficiary, making El-Sayed's path to a November win steeper regardless of Tuesday's result.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weighed in separately on Sunday, addressing efforts by critics to pressure her and other progressives into formally disavowing Piker. She did not issue a disavowal.
After the primary closed, Stevens publicly backed El-Sayed as the Democratic nominee despite her criticism of the Piker connection. She said it "certainly makes sense" for El-Sayed to end his affiliation with the streamer going forward—a formulation that stopped short of demanding it but made her preference plain.
El-Sayed enters November with the AIPAC money already spent against him and a Republican opponent in Rogers who benefits from continued outside spending. His campaign has not announced whether he will put distance between himself and Piker before November.
