A bitter fight over criticism of Israel and the role of Hasan Piker on the left has split progressive and establishment Democrats in Michigan’s closely watched Senate race. Mallory McMorrow, Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens are locked in a tight three-way contest, and the argument over Piker has become one of the clearest signs yet of how divided the party remains over Gaza, Lebanon and the politics of Israel.
McMorrow, the Anti-Defamation League, the Trump administration, Third Way, Sen. Elissa Slotkin and other pro-Israel figures have labeled Piker antisemitic. Stevens is backed by Aipac, while El-Sayed and Piker announced last week that they planned to rally together. Piker, a Muslim streamer with an audience of 3 million on Twitch, has drawn intense criticism for his attacks on Israel over its assault on Gaza, the invasion of Lebanon, the war with Iran and its treatment of Palestinians. He has described Hamas as “a thousand times better than the fascist settler colonial apartheid state.”
The fight matters because Michigan is not just another Senate battleground. It has the nation’s largest Arab American population per capita and a large Lebanese diaspora rooted largely in southern Lebanon, and the dispute is unfolding as Israel’s assault on southern Lebanon continues. The state also sits at the center of the Democratic Party’s anxiety after Kamala Harris lost Michigan in 2024 by 80,000 votes. One estimate said support for Israel cost her 100,000 votes there, and a November 2024 analysis found a 22,000-vote swing away from Democrats in the three cities with the largest Arab American and Muslim populations. A separate poll found Israel was the top issue for Democrats who did not back Harris.
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That backdrop is why seven Arab American leaders told that centrist Democrats’ attacks on Abdul El-Sayed and Piker are both strategic and moral blunders. They said the attacks amount to an effort to censor criticism of Israel and reflect anti-Arab bias, while also warning that the party is repeating the mistakes that helped fuel its 2024 defeat in Michigan and beyond. Basim Elkarra said, “They are not showing empathy toward Lebanese and Muslim communities,” and added, “Some in the Democratic party haven’t learned from 2024.” He said, “Especially in a battleground state, I think they’re going to suffer the consequences in 2028 if they don’t rectify their strategy.”
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The tension is sharpened by timing. McMorrow and her surrogates say Piker should be shunned because the rallies come less than a month after the Temple Israel synagogue attack. Yet Democrats have also embraced him before: Sanders praised an interview with Piker, and the Harris campaign invited him to livestream from the Democratic national convention in August 2024. That leaves the party trying to police the same voice it once welcomed, even as Arab American leaders say the backlash is doing exactly what it claims to prevent — pushing voters further away in a state that could decide the next presidency. For now, the Michigan race is answering the question plainly: the fight over Hasan Piker is not a side issue, but a proxy for whether Democrats have learned anything from 2024.
