{"id":225855,"date":"2026-09-28T14:35:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T14:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/most-americans-dont-know-hasan-piker-the-rest-say-he-is-changing-this-years-elections-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T14:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T14:35:20","slug":"most-americans-dont-know-hasan-piker-the-rest-say-he-is-changing-this-years-elections-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/most-americans-dont-know-hasan-piker-the-rest-say-he-is-changing-this-years-elections-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Americans don\u2019t know Hasan Piker. The rest say he is changing this year\u2019s elections – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

The popular Twitch streamer has been vilified by Republicans, but the socialist commentator has a large audience that some Democrats have courted
It\u2019s only <\/strong>9am and the latest media shitstorm is well under way. Hasan Piker scrolls through his social media feeds as he comes down the stairs of his home in West Hollywood.
An interview with Axios, in which Piker said the US had committed more atrocities than al-Qaida, is blowing up his phone. Requests from reporters are <\/strong>streaming in. Comments on the interview flood his replies.
Just another day, and just another news cycle, for a 35-year-old socialist streamer <\/strong>who has no elected or appointed power.
Never mind that many voters don\u2019t know<\/a> who Piker is \u2013 and haven\u2019t heard of Twitch, his streaming platform of choice \u2013 despite months of concerted efforts by political opponents to elevate his profile, and tie Democratic candidates to his most incendiary comments.
Facing an uphill battle to retain control of Congress in November\u2019s US midterm elections<\/a>, and struggling to land on a coherent message to rally support, Republicans<\/a> have fixated on Piker \u2013 and held him up as a representative of their political targets, from socialists and leftists to Muslims.
Voters, so far, don\u2019t seem to care about Piker \u2013 at least not more than the cost of gas, or the war in Iran, or healthcare, or artificial intelligence, or immigration, or corruption. Around the country, many told the Guardian they hadn\u2019t heard of Piker, or they knew who he was and sometimes had opinions, but those opinions didn\u2019t factor into their voting decisions.
Still, Piker features in Republican campaign ads. A photo of him nearly nude, inexplicably, appeared on the jumbotron at the party\u2019s midterm convention. And Republicans<\/a> have tried hard to tie Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in the critical swing state of Michigan, to Piker after El-Sayed campaigned with him in the primary. (The candidate has since distanced himself from Piker.)
Fielding questions in quick pockets of time around his hours of streaming, podcasts and media appearances, Piker says he is not overly troubled by such attacks. \u201cRepublicans believe this is an incredible narrative, for the record,\u201d he says. \u201cThey truly believe that this is successful. I\u2019m willing to bet it\u2019s because they\u2019re fucking brain-poisoned by the internet.\u201d
But the spotlight is glaringly bright. He was even called out from the stage of this week\u2019s United Nations general assembly, as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, singled out<\/a> one of Piker\u2019s most controversial remarks.
Moderate Democrats<\/a> have also used Piker as a proxy in their battle against their party\u2019s ascendant left, which notched key upsets in primaries this year, challenging the centrist establishment.
And Piker won\u2019t shut up. He streams for seven hours nonstop each day, with hundreds of thousands of followers tuning in each hour. And even then, he\u2019s not done.
Depicted on the right as an extremist, Piker is trying to be tame, he says. \u201cFor the election season, I have tried to be as serious as possible,\u201d he says in his signature suit and tie.
Unlike the Democratic primaries, where he appeared alongside his chosen candidates from El-Sayed in Michigan to Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania, Piker <\/strong>isn\u2019t campaigning for anyone in the general election.
It has not escaped Piker\u2019s notice that Republicans continue to target Democrats over their ties with him, and his more controversial statements. \u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily my affiliation that\u2019s so negative,\u201d he suggests. But more questions about him mean fewer questions about policy and their opponents. It\u2019s a missed opportunity when they constantly have to answer \u201cWhat about Hasan Piker?\u201d Piker says.
News cycles focused on Piker are driven by a push to attack progressive candidates, according to him, while news outlets carry negative stories about him in an effort to chase clicks and protect their own relevance in the media ecosystem.
But in the longer term, Piker also sees the focus on him as a wider test, for a potential 2028 presidential run from the left by candidate like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive congresswoman.
\u201cMost people on the left are in some way, shape or form connected back to my community,<\/strong> or myself, or organizations that I work with,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is an active way to try and eliminate a political opponent before it becomes too big of a problem for them.\u201d
Piker was born in New Jersey and grew up mostly in Turkey; his parents \u2013 his father a political scientist and his mother an architectural and art historian \u2013 are Turkish immigrants. While a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey, he got his start as an intern at the progressive outlet The Young Turks, which was co-founded by his uncle, Cenk Uygur. He went on to host a show on the network and started streaming on Twitch<\/a> in 2018, eventually leaving The Young Turks to focus on his own platform.
He now has more than 3 million followers on Twitch, nearly 2 million on YouTube and nearly 2 million on X.
From the start, he made controversial comments \u2013 comments that now appear in political ads attacking candidates that Piker has supported. Perhaps the most notable, when in 2019 he said \u201cAmerica deserved 9\/11,\u201d features prominently in an ad by Mike Rogers, the Republican contender for US Senate in Michigan, to attack El-Sayed. (Piker has since said the comment was \u201cinappropriate\u201d.)
A stream in August led to another round of condemnations. Piker, a frequent critic of Israel, said while talking about the Democratic <\/strong>Michigan congressional candidate Jeremy Moss: \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 \u2013<\/strong> not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.\u201d His anti-Israel views, in particular, took center stage in the Michigan Senate primary, where El-Sayed faced the pro-Israel congresswoman Haley Stevens. El-Sayed has worked since his primary win to bring in Jewish voters in the state.
In the Axios interview that sparked the shitstorm earlier this month, Piker was asked<\/a> whether he thought America was worse than al-Qaida, the terrorist group. \u201cPound for pound, as far as the number of deaths, yes,\u201d he responded. \u201cWe have caused tremendous terror all around the world.\u201d
Earlier this year, the UK would not allow<\/a> Piker or Uygur to enter the country to do speaking events, with the Home Office saying their visit \u201cmay not be conducive to the public good\u201d. And in Australia in August, a program on the ABC that featured an interview with Piker led to a round of complaints<\/a> to the national broadcaster.
Trump this month called Piker a \u201cterrible liability\u201d who has \u201ca power over some of these Democrats\u201d. The Democratic National Committee chair, Ken Martin, said some of Piker\u2019s comments were \u201cabsolutely disgusting and deplorable\u201d and that he \u201cdoes not represent the Democratic party\u201d or its candidates.
After <\/strong>13 years on camera, Piker concedes that his sheer volume of talking means he is not always considered in his comments. After some <\/strong>22,000 hours of extemporaneous commentary on hot-button issues, some of his remarks almost inevitably test what people find acceptable. His stream, he notes, is not prepackaged or scripted like the conventional programs of other political commentators.
His audience is dedicated, albeit niche. Members of Congress have appeared on his streams, including Ocasio-Cortez in 2020. In 2025, he stepped more into campaigning for democratic socialist and progressive candidates, first with the then future New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani. In the 2026 cycle, he lent his name recognition to El-Sayed, Pennsylvania congressional candidate Rabb, Colorado\u2019s Milat Kiros, Adam Hamawy in New Jersey and others.
After Democrats lost the presidential race in 2024, their soul-searching included a quest for a \u201cJoe Rogan of the left\u201d who could counter the influence the right had on podcasts. Rogan, for what it\u2019s worth, has more than 21 million followers on YouTube alone. This elevated Piker\u2019s profile further, but misunderstood the realm of nonstop speaking to camera online. It is inherently not polished, and the potential for controversy exceeds the tolerance of most Democratic politicians.
Piker has said that he isn\u2019t the Joe Rogan of the left, that really there could be no such thing. Democrats were looking for someone with a platform like Rogan\u2019s that would be a \u201clackey for the party\u201d. \u201cI\u2019m not that person,\u201d he says.
He could elect to not answer a question posed like the al-Qaida one. He could soft-pedal or redirect or say something he doesn\u2019t really believe. But instead, he takes the opportunity to be in front of larger audiences as a chance to find other people who will resonate with what he\u2019s saying, even if it\u2019s \u201cintentionally provocative\u201d.
Candidates reached out to him, he says. It hasn\u2019t brought him more money but has increased viewership on YouTube. If he were truly irrelevant, no candidate would risk associating with him, he says. They had made a calculation \u2013 and sometimes campaigns were open with him about that, saying they had tested him in their districts to see if he will help or hurt, he says.
\u201cThis is bad content. It sucks to admit,\u201d he says. \u201cFrom my perspective, it\u2019s much easier for me to stay the hell away from real campaigns, and I think part of the reason for why I\u2019m getting attacked so much is so that that is what I do, I sit it out next time, or it\u2019s a lesson for even progressive candidates that they shy away from entertaining my platform at all.\u201d
For voters, Piker is mostly a distraction.
\u201cI kind of liken it to following Kim Kardashian,\u201d Phil Verges, a farmer in Spring Valley, Wisconsin, said of Piker. \u201cNow, I don\u2019t \u2013 excuse my language \u2013 I don\u2019t give a shit.\u201d
Verges, who votes mostly for Democrats, said he only started to hear Piker\u2019s name while following El-Sayed\u2019s campaign. The stream is \u201ctotally meaningless to me\u201d, he added, \u201cas Joe Rogan is to me\u201d.
Two things can be true at once. Piker has sway over a set of dedicated leftwing, often younger, people who can help increase a candidate\u2019s profile in a Democratic primary. But many Americans do not care, or even know, about him.
Despite the countless news cycles, a New York Times\/Siena poll<\/a> from mid-September found 62% of likely voters across three US Senate battleground states did not know who Piker was. Even in Michigan, where ads are running about Piker, 54% of voters didn\u2019t know him.
Guardian reporters who approached voters across the country encountered the same reality. Some said his name sounded familiar, or that they had only heard it in recent weeks in the media.
Rabb, the Democratic congressional candidate in Pennsylvania\u2019s solidly blue third congressional district, was the oldest candidate, at 56, in a crowded primary this year. He credits Piker with having brought awareness to his campaign among a demographic that would have otherwise been hard, and expensive, to reach.
Whether Piker\u2019s support won him the primary is \u201cunknowable\u201d, Rabb said, but it \u201csignificantly increased\u201d his capacity to reach more people \u2013 and bring on more volunteers to talk about his candidacy. \u201cWhat he could do in one stream could have taken me months to cultivate,\u201d he said.
Piker has all the while become a central focus of Republican attacks. A recent push poll in Georgia attempted to tie Piker to the Democratic US senator Jon Ossoff, a rising star in the party. The pair have not campaigned together once.
At this month\u2019s Republican convention, Piker proved an unlikely star, with speakers frequently citing him as the personification of a supposed communist and anti-Israel takeover of the Democratic party. Most of the 15 attenders interviewed by the Guardian had never heard of him.
Even seasoned convention-goers were in the dark. Chris Daniel, 44, from Houston, Texas, who has attended every Republican convention since 2004, assumed that Piker must be a British political candidate.
But after months of pillorying on the right, the name did resonate with some.
AJ Louderback, a Texas state legislator, dismissed him in stark ideological terms as \u201cjust another radical Muslim\u201d, and remarked: \u201cHe doesn\u2019t stand for American values.\u201d
Republicans, and rightwing media<\/a>, were expert at creating a \u201cboogeyman\u201d, Piker notes, from transgender athletes to migrant caravans. But the attack isn\u2019t as salient when it\u2019s a \u201crabble rouser, Twitch streamer, random entertainer guy\u201d, he says.
\u201cThere\u2019s just chaos everywhere, and people are just going about their daily lives, trying to make sense of it all and trying to find some kind of peace and stability and prosperity,\u201d adds Piker. \u201cNo one is saying it\u2019s because of a Twitch streamer. I\u2019m not top of mind for anybody.\u201d
At Piker\u2019s house, the day begins with coffee delivery and checking his friend group\u2019s standings in their fantasy football league. Piker grabs a new Zyn before getting on camera to record a pop culture podcast he does with his friends called Fear&. His dog, a fluffy Tibetan mastiff named Kaya, sits outside the podcast recording room.
After almost two hours of podcasting, Piker moves over to the room where he streams on Twitch for seven hours. Art from fans, mostly of Piker, lines the walls around him. He scrolls through news stories, tweets and an endless chat window.
Today he launches into the interview with Axios, which he calls a \u201chit job\u201d, and as the circus around the interview spreads, suggests he maybe shouldn\u2019t have done it, or didn\u2019t expect it to become a clip show, or shouldn\u2019t have used the term \u201cpound for pound\u201d, but that it wasn\u2019t the \u201cend of the world\u201d.
Piker spends the majority of each day on camera. He even eats on camera, taking breaks to use the bathroom. He works out and streams \u2013 that\u2019s basically it \u2013 although he does have friends, who are around much of the time.
At any given time, about 25,000 to 30,000 people are viewing the stream. Most of those do not watch for the duration, according to Piker, who says between 300,000 and 500,000 unique visitors will tune in each hour.
In the chat, viewers lob questions, praise and criticism. \u201cbaby wake up, a new hasan bad press tour,\u201d one person writes in the chat. \u201cRare hasan L shouldn\u2019t have done this interview,\u201d says another. Today\u2019s stream focuses heavily on Piker himself.
After a full streaming shift, he\u2019s not done talking. Piker heads from his home studio to a live taping of Lovett or Leave It, a show from the Pod Save America co-host Jon Lovett that broadcasts on MS Now. (At arrival, a security guard asks me if I\u2019m Piker\u2019s publicist. A publicist, the streamer reflects later, would tell him not to do any interviews, even with friendlier outlets, at this point \u2013 when his whole job, really, is \u201cdealing with the media\u201d.)
In his opening remarks, Lovett jokes, \u201cIf Democrats lose the midterms, we should not have to wonder if it\u2019s because of missing mail-in ballots,\u201d after talking about Trump\u2019s efforts to derail mail voting. \u201cWe should know, without a shadow of a doubt, that it is because of Hasan Piker.\u201d
\u201cI denounce you,\u201d Lovett declares to Piker as he walks out on stage, a jocular nod to the string of condemnations of Piker\u2019s statements that have featured during this year\u2019s midterm campaigns. Lovett thinks Piker has said some \u201cvery stupid and bad\u201d things, but also that a lot of his words have been taken out of context. But, he asks, how does Piker view his responsibility, given his influence and proximity to candidates who he wants to win?
It\u2019s a question Piker seems to wrestle with throughout the day. Still, he tells Lovett at one point, \u201cThe idea that a Twitch streamer is supposed to be held to a higher standard than the president is such an insane phenomenon.\u201d
\u201cThey\u2019re elevating my status as this super-serious political commentator and then campaign consultant, campaign surrogate, when I\u2019ve never wanted to be that,\u201d he adds.
Afterward, fans approach Piker for photos. One person, he says later, asks how he puts up with so much hatred coming his way for saying what he believes. He is both \u201cvery stubborn\u201d and \u201cvery mission-oriented\u201d, he explains.
Has he considered talking less?
\u201cNo,\u201d he replies. \u201cI mean, I talk less, I say the same stuff. Still going to be a problem.\u201d
David Smith contributed <\/em>reporting<\/em><\/p>\n

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The popular Twitch streamer has been vilified by Republicans, but the socialist commentator has a large audience that some Democrats have courtedIt\u2019s only 9am and the latest media shitstorm is well under way. Hasan Piker scrolls through his social media feeds as he comes down the stairs of his home in West Hollywood.An interview with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":225856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}