Hasan Piker has met with Tom Steyer and shared a meal with Saikat Chakrabarti
Streamer Hasan Piker, left, shows his phone on a live Twitch stream as producer Mauricio Miranda films during a campaign event for Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
By Anabel Sosa, Senior California politics reporter May 6, 2026 (SFGate.com)
Hasan Piker, a controversial streamer who has become nationally recognized for his political commentary and high-profile interviews on the livestreaming platform Twitch, is now entering the California political arena.
Piker has a boy-next-door appeal: He’s a casual-spoken, 34-year-old millennial who was born in suburban New Jersey and raised in Istanbul. He graduated from Rutgers University and started his career as a commentator on the populist left-wing streaming show “The Young Turks.” He’s gone on to become one of the most influential online political voices for teenagers and members of Generation Z through Twitch, where he has acquired millions of subscribers, and he now has a visible presence on the campaign trail as progressives across the country place bets in the primaries.
Last month, Piker made a splash while making public appearances with Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. He also attended a “Tax the Rich” rally with Bernie Sanders in March and separately spoke with Rep. Ro Khanna on his show. Khanna received criticism over it but argued Democrats should engage with political influencers to help win future races. Piker is what some are calling a “midterm surrogate” and is sparking outrage from Democrats like Sen. Brad Schneider from Illinois, who said he is concerned about Piker’s anti-Israel stance and said Democrats are losing credibility. There is a long trail of criticism that continues to follow Piker wherever he goes, but he has remained unfazed, calling the attention from the Illinois senator “very flattering.”
Piker is anti-imperialist and pro-welfare and has become popular for his criticisms of the Democratic playbook, particularly after the 2024 presidential election. He has been considered the progressive version of podcaster Joe Rogan and was once even called a “gateway drug” to the left. Indeed, he has also made comments — some now retracted — that raise questions about his political views. That includes statements like “America deserved 9/11,” that Hamas is “1,000 times better than Israel” and that the fall of the Soviet Union was “one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century.”
The fact that he has upset Republicans and Democrats in Washington, who accuse him of antisemitism and being pro-terrorism, along with posing harm to the future of the Democratic Party, could be the very thing that keeps viewers listening: His political commentary has no limits and ranges from vocal criticism of Israel to domestic politics where he challenges establishment Democrats and Republicans. While his beliefs have often been received with skepticism, there is no denying that Piker has sustained steady footing in the political zeitgeist.
Now, he is focusing on California, where he has lived since 2021. Piker spoke in March with Saikat Chakrabarti, the progressive-leaning candidate seeking to absorb Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat. Piker is returning this week to rally beside Chakrabarti, a centimillionaire and former Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez staffer, and former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a signal of his political relevance and power, as the primaries are just a month away.
In April, Piker met with Tom Steyer, a billionaire and one of the leading Democrats in the California governor’s race. It may seem risky to bring a divisive voice like Piker into a campaign so late in the game, but Steyer understands Piker’s influence. A representative for Steyer’s campaign wrote to SFGATE in an email that the candidate joined Piker on Twitch as “part of an effort to reach younger audiences and meet voters where they are.”
“While they don’t agree on every issue, Tom believes leadership requires showing up, listening, and engaging Californians in every corner of our state,” they said. Piker and Steyer discussed lowering electricity costs via Steyer’s vision to dismantle PG&E. They also talked about the billionaire wealth tax, which Steyer supports, and why capitalism has failed Americans.
After the interview, Piker sang Steyer’s praises.
California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer in conversation with Hasan Piker on his show in April 2026.Screenshot via YouTube
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think he’s the most interesting candidate with viability right now,” Piker told Mother Jones. He went on to say Steyer is “probably a little more responsive than the rest of the candidates are.”
As for Chakrabarti, he first earned his fortune as a founding engineer for Stripe. After leaving Silicon Valley, he went on to volunteer for Sanders and later became the chief of staff for AOC, who has avoided chiming in on the race. He is rumored to have been fired; however, in an April 2025 interview with SFGATE, Chakrabarti said he always planned for the role to be temporary, and his wife’s pregnancy was a reason for his departure. After those stints, and before he decided to run for Pelosi’s seat last spring, he ran a nonprofit group called Justice Democrats that helped elect progressive candidates.
Chakrabarti, who is only a little behind leading Democrat Sen. Scott Wiener in the polls, and ahead of San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, is placing his bets on Piker. The pair are going to be speaking together at a rally this week.
He said Piker, who has gotten millions of young people interested in politics, was an intentional add-on to his campaign, even in the eleventh hour. He said Democrats risk losing reelection if they don’t engage with figures like Piker.
“After the 2024 election, we saw many disaffected young voters end up voting for Trump. Many of them did so because they see a current political and economic system that’s failing them, and Trump promised change,” Chakrabarti said in a text statement to SFGATE. “If we want to win young people back, we need to be willing to engage with them on the platforms where they’re paying attention.”
Piker previously had dinner with Chakrabarti, which was posted on YouTube in mid-April. They talked about how to win voters over, why voters want to oust mainstream Democrats, and how voters might actually want a “Bernie-crat” like Chakrabarti in office.
“He has really, really solid politics,” Piker told Mother Jones. “… What I have realized … is that all of those guys that we’re voting for on the Democratic Party side, the establishment Democrats, they represent the interests of billionaires and millionaires regardless, even if they themselves are not.”
A year ago, Chakrabarti entered the race with little to no name recognition for the average California voter. Even Steyer has needed to make a name for himself this campaign season. And that’s considering he ran an eight-month-long presidential campaign and came in third in the South Carolina primary, only to suspend his campaign.
But through their multimillion-dollar self-funded campaigns, they each have used their fortunes to get their names out. Steyer went from polling at 1% at the start of his run last fall to now being a leading Democratic candidate, along with former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who has only recently risen in polls. Chakrabarti might need some more help, as he trails in the polls behind Wiener, who has been a state senator for a decade and already has powerful endorsements behind him.
Now, with an influential voice like Piker in their corner, it could help get them the support they’re looking for. And while it’s unclear if Piker will aid or hinder Chakrabarti’s and Steyer’s campaigns, it will almost certainly give them the exposure they’re looking for.
More Politics
— Newsom scores early win in his $787M lawsuit against Fox News
— Gen Z students are embracing the ‘Kirk doctrine’ on Calif. campuses
— 2 contentious measures in California move toward 2026 ballot
— California town ‘blindsided’ by mayor’s rogue tourism app
May 6, 2026
Senior California politics reporter
Anabel Sosa is the senior California politics reporter at SFGATE. She previously covered the statehouse and elections for the Los Angeles Times. She has a masters degree in investigative journalism from UC Berkeley. You can reach her at anabel.sosa@sfgate.com.
