How big of a tent do Democrats want? Michigan contest tests limits

By the time Hasan Piker took the microphone at two campaign events with a Senate candidate in Michigan on Tuesday, the popular but controversial online streamer had already generated plenty of noise inside the Democratic Party.

- JONY CAPPELLETTI

CARLOS OSORIO Associated Press ABDUL EI-SAYED is a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan.

Some have pitched him as a gateway to young people — particularly young men — who have drifted to the right in recent years. Others fear he is a sign of the party beholden to its extremes, pointing to inflammatory rhetoric like “Hamas is a thousand times better” than Israel, describing some Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and that “America deserved 9/11.”

Piker’s scheduled appearances with Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, have catalyzed questions of how big a tent the party wants to build as it works to regain power in the midterm elections and win back the White House.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Piker cast the reaction as part of a broader fight for the party’s future.

“There is definitely, I think, a battle right now for who gets to be more representative of the national Democratic Party,” he said.

Piker remains largely unapologetic for his past remarks, although he has said some were poorly worded. He called the renewed focus on them “totally ridiculous, especially considering that there are far more consequential things happening in the world right now.”