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<\/a><\/p>\n(L-r) Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, joins Maryland U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin and Michigan U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell for a town hall in Ann Arbor, Mich., Aug. 26, 2026. (Andrew Lapin\/JTA)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t any reporter ask me again about Hasan Piker,\u201d Michigan U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell told the crowd at an Ann Arbor, Mich., town hall, to cheers. \u201cIt\u2019s not what November is about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dingell\u2019s crack was the only time the prominent left-wing streamer\u2019s name was mentioned at all during the pair of El-Sayed rallies that day. Piker recently commented, \u201cIf Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone\u2019s going to come around and take action\u2026 against American Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
His remarks prompted uproar from several corners of Democratic leadership and pushback from El-Sayed, who distanced himself from Piker\u2019s remarks in a statement prior to his latest rallies. Despite this, El-Sayed\u2019s new Jewish campaign surrogate, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, avoided the topic altogether.<\/p>\n
That reluctance to talk about Piker on the campaign trail Wednesday extended to the candidate himself. El-Sayed didn\u2019t mention Piker, nor Israel, once in either of his campaign stops with Raskin, except when asked directly by reporters.<\/p>\n
The former county health official campaigned with Piker during the primary \u2014 including at one stop at the University of Michigan a stone\u2019s throw away from Wednesday\u2019s event \u2014 as the two made opposition to Israel a central issue of his candidacy. But at a press conference following his Ann Arbor event, El-Sayed described Piker as \u201ca streamer in California,\u201d adding that the media was putting too much focus on his most prominent supporter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m less interested in going to the tabloid version of our politics where we cover this as who\u2019s in, who\u2019s out, who\u2019s up, who\u2019s down, who\u2019s talking to who,\u201d El-Sayed said. \u201cI\u2019m a lot more interested in talking to the people in the state who had a bum deal because of Donald Trump and the politics that [El-Sayed\u2019s GOP opponent] Mike Rogers has been the epitome of for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raskin, one of the most prominent Jewish Democrats in the House, also showed a reluctance to talk about Jewish voters in general. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency asked the congressman in Ann Arbor how he would sell El-Sayed to Jewish Democrats uncomfortable with his rhetoric. In response, he did not mention Jewish concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose of us who have been fighting Donald Trump and his authoritarianism and corruption and violence against American citizens and immigrants for 10 years now understand that this is an essential referendum about the future,\u201d Raskin said in response. \u201cWill we have democracy or will we have autocracy?\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that he has been \u201ccampaigning for Democrats all over the country,\u201d and praised the party for being \u201ca very big tent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust like any big family Thanksgiving dinner, there can be arguments and people jostling, and there\u2019s unruliness,\u201d Raskin said. \u201cBut fundamentally, we all believe in democracy and freedom and the progress and prosperity of our people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet questions about Piker, and how close the movement he represents may come to remaking the Democratic Party\u2019s values, hang over both Michigan\u2019s Senate race and the future of Jewish inclusion in the party. As the party fights to retake Congress this fall, some liberal Jewish voters believe the growing backlash against Israel among the \u201cbig tent\u201d\u2019s progressive wing is damaging their historic coalition. A growing number of Jewish voters in Michigan who previously backed Democrats are now supporting Rogers instead, and El-Sayed\u2019s association with Piker is often cited as a key reason why.<\/p>\n
In playing the role of uniter, Raskin is slaloming carefully between the party\u2019s different factions. Before campaigning with El-Sayed, the congressman stumped for Michigan Rep. Hillary Scholten, a moderate Democrat who has withheld her endorsement of El-Sayed while specifying his association with Piker as a sticking point.<\/p>\n
Also being silent on the rallies is a key target of Piker\u2019s: Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss, whose likeness the streamer had made his latest comments in front of. The Jewish and pro-Israel Democratic congressional candidate is running in a heavily Jewish district that encompasses Oakland County, where El-Sayed\u2019s second rally of the day took place. In recent days, Moss said that El-Sayed was \u201cgoing to have to demonstrate some serious outreach to Oakland County\u2019s Jewish community.\u201d He declined to comment to JTA about the day\u2019s rallies.<\/p>\n
As they largely avoided the elephant in the room among Democrats, El-Sayed and his allies also preached the importance of party unity in taking on their Republican opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a big effort to divide us,\u201d Raskin told the second rally\u2019s audience in Farmington Hills. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to pick on disagreements in our party, trying to exacerbate conflict, because we have freedom of thought in our party and freedom of speech in our party and freedom of dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
CORRECTION: The story has been corrected to reflect misplaced quote marks around a paraphrase, \u201csuffer the consequences of the actions of the state.\u201d The exact quote has been inserted in its place: \u201cIf Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone\u2019s going to come around and take action\u2026 against American Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n