At MSU, Abdul El-Sayed bets Hasan Piker can help bring the online left into the tent

EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is betting that the party’s big tent is wide enough to include controversial internet personality Hasan Piker.

At Michigan State University on Tuesday, the U.S. Senate hopeful shared a stage with the left-wing online influencer and U.S. Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, brushing off days of criticism from fellow Democrats who say inviting Piker onto the campaign trail risks alienating Jewish voters and weakening the party in November.

In front of a packed lecture hall, El-Sayed framed his choice as a test of whether Democrats are serious about welcoming the young, online left into their coalition, or simply paying it lip service while policing who can speak.

“We have a choice in this election, right?” he told the crowd. “I know I’m not supposed to run for office. I get it. I’m the wrong color. I pray the wrong way, and I come from the wrong part of the world. I trained in medicine. But we gotta stop playing to lose. And we got to start playing to win.”

That strategy has drawn sharp pushback from inside the party. U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a Birmingham Democrat and one of El-Sayed’s primary challengers, has called Piker “the exact opposite of someone I’d be campaigning with,” while state Sen. Mallory McMorrow of Royal Oak, another challenger, followed in the coming days by comparing Piker to neo-Nazi podcaster Nick Fuentes, a label he and El-Sayed disagree with. A centrist think tank, Third Way, has labeled El-Sayed a “disgrace to the Democratic Party” over the alliance.

Mike Rogers, a White Lake Republican and the party’s presumptive nominee, has gone on a media tour in the wake of El-Sayed’s rally with Piker, arguing it “personifies how radical the Democratic Party has become.”

For El-Sayed, “playing to win” now includes rallying with Piker, a left-wing streamer who has been called “the Joe Rogan of the left.” He has more than 3 million followers on........

© The Hill