{"id":48171,"date":"2026-05-11T11:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T18:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=48171"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:21:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T18:21:23","slug":"hasan-piker-is-the-democrats-new-man-on-the-trail-whether-they-like-it-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/05\/11\/hasan-piker-is-the-democrats-new-man-on-the-trail-whether-they-like-it-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Hasan Piker Is the Democrats\u2019 New Man on the Trail, Whether They Like It or Not"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Insurgent candidates like Cori Bush are tapping Piker as a campaign surrogate \u2014 but they still face an uphill battle to winning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Devin Thomas O\u2019Shea<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 8 2026 (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Hasan Piker, the Twitch streamer and political commentator, appeared at a May Day rally on May 1 in St. Louis to support Cori Bush\u2019s congressional run. Photo: Tristan Beatty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Devin Thomas O\u2019Shea is the author of \u201cThe Veiled Prophet: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggle for St. Louis<\/a>,\u201d publishing with Haymarket Books in June 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter<\/strong> to Twitch and Amazon, New York Democratic Rep. Richie Torres once slammed<\/a> Hasan Piker, the popular political streamer, for his \u201cdepravity\u201d and called him \u201cthe poster child for the post-October 7th outbreak of antisemitism.\u201d While mainstream Democrats and their allies have for months weighed the \u201cproblem\u201d of Piker for the party, his star has only continued to rise. Insurgent candidates on the left are now making him their go-to surrogate, with Piker as a new kind of kingmaker, one they hope can shepherd his mass of online supporters behind them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piker recently touched down in Missouri to lend his star power to Cori Bush, who is looking to reclaim her position in the House after serving as the first Black woman to represent the state\u2019s 1st Congressional District from 2021 to 2025. During her first term in office, Bush authored a bill<\/a> calling for an \u201cimmediate deescalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine.\u201d In what was widely read as retribution, Bush was primaried by a Democratic opponent, Wesley Bell, who ended his own<\/a> Senate campaign against Republican Josh Hawley for the run; Bell defeated Bush with the help of an unprecedented nearly $9 million in spending<\/a> from the super PAC for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee<\/a>, or AIPAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Bush is back, and like Piker, is unbowed: During the rally, she wore a T-shirt with her campaign slogan \u201cFIGHT BACK\u201d in big, bold letters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love seeing you all,\u201d Bush told the May Day crowd. \u201cI just don\u2019t love why<\/em> I keep seeing you all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bush, who rose to prominence as an activist with the Black Lives Matter movement, quickly gained a reputation in office for bucking establishment Democrats<\/a> \u2014 even outpacing other members of \u201cthe Squad\u201d \u2014 and being outspoken in her criticism<\/a> of party leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On his wildly popular Twitch stream, Piker has\u00a0argued<\/a>\u00a0that \u201c80 percent of the Democratic Party now agrees with the principles that Cori Bush was defending at a time when it was inopportune for her to do so.\u201d Piker\u2019s visit to St. Louis coincided with weeks of\u00a0national media scrutiny<\/a>\u00a0condemning the\u00a0popular streamer\u2019s views<\/a>\u00a0as antisemitic, culminating in Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., pushing a bipartisan bill to explicitly\u00a0denounce Piker<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Democrats Don\u2019t Know Who They\u2019ll Be in 2028. Michigan May Offer an Answer.<\/a><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But for the left, the criticism rings more like an endorsement, and Piker has hit the campaign trail for a number of progressive Democrats including Abdul El-Sayed, who\u2019s running for the Senate in Michigan; Dr. Adam Hamawy<\/a>, who\u2019s running for a New Jersey House seat; and Rep. Ilhan Omar, who\u2019s up for reelection in Minnesota. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On stage with Bush, Piker described Bell as an \u201cAIPAC stooge,\u201d and urged St. Louisans to rally around the Bush campaign. \u201cRepublicans are monsters who traffic in hatred,\u201d said Piker. \u201cBut we\u2019re no longer going to vote for do-nothing Democrats, either.\u201d He told the crowd about a St. Louis woman at the airport who was shocked to see him, visiting the city. \u201cThere\u2019s this attitude in places like Missouri where city slickers like myself, the bicoastal elite, don\u2019t come to places like St. Louis. Like, she genuinely was shocked,\u201d Piker said on a stream re-cap<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the rally, Piker described St. Louis as part of a growing coalition of the discontented. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of places like St. Louis. Places that have been left behind by wealthy corporations that pollute your waters and steal your productive output \u2026 but today we say, \u2018No more!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement to The Intercept, a spokesperson for Bell pointed to common criticisms from mainstream figures over Piker\u2019s past online comments. \u201cIf Cori Bush spent as much time meeting with her constituents as she does associating with people who condone sexual assault and blame America for September 11th, she may have fared better in her last election,\u201d said Bell campaign spokesperson Jordan Blase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cRepublicans are monsters who traffic in hatred. But we\u2019re no longer going to vote for do-nothing Democrats, either.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Before Piker and Bush, historian \u00c1ngel Flores Font\u00e1nez<\/a> took the stage as an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, anchoring the day in proud St. Louis labor history. One of the first American general strikes<\/a> took place in the city in July 1877, when railroad workers across the United States objected to immiseration imposed by Gilded Age robber barons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1877, railroad workers across the United States shut down rail line capital from New York to Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania to Ohio, all the way out west to Missouri. In St. Louis, the strike escalated, evolving into a general action which drew river levee roustabouts, coopers, newsboys, foundry workers, and refinery laborers into a weeklong action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strike was a multiracial coalition, and the strike\u2019s executive committee briefly ran St. Louis as one of the first commune governments before it was violently suppressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Font\u00e1nez recalled the city\u2019s legacy of socialists, which dates back to the abolitionist German \u201948ers<\/a>, and the Funsten Nut Strike<\/a> of May 1933. As University of Missouri history professor Keona Ervin notes in \u201cGateway to Equality: Black Women and the Struggle for Economic Justice in St. Louis,\u201d the Funsten strike was one of the first successful strike actions of the era, with the Communist Party USA using the strike as a moment to \u201cmark the urban Midwest as a new hotbed for radical labor politics spearheaded by black working women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the aftermath of the 2014 Black Lives Matter movement, which began in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson<\/a>, many hoped to see St. Louis once again become a beacon of progressivism. But Missouri poses a cadre of challenges: The 1st District is a gerrymandered product of a red state that used to be purple. Missouri was a bellwether<\/a> for a century, but as polarization intensified in the early 2000s, Missouri Republicans successfully drew maps that neutralized the state\u2019s urban progressive centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Most Missourians live in the blue islands of St. Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield, which also make up 80 percent of the state\u2019s annual GDP<\/a>. Previously, the state elected Democratic governors, senators, and controlled a handful of congressional seats. But now the 1st District is one of the few remaining positions not controlled by Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decades of state and federal Republican rule have been disastrous for the Greater St. Louis area, plunging the city into a pattern of capital flight and population loss. The city is still reeling from the May 2025 tornado<\/a> which ripped through the city and hit historically Black neighborhoods in North St. Louis the hardest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the St. Louis mayor\u2019s office, many residents feel the recovery has been botched and worry that the North Side will not be rebuilt. Last month, protesters confronted Mayor Cara Spencer<\/a> over the sluggish cleanup effort, where houses have been left half-destroyed and their residents sleeping in tents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re going to our electeds, we\u2019re saying fully fund the North Side,\u201d Bush told the crowd. \u201cIf you can\u2019t stand up to Donald Trump and his administration\u00a0\u2014 at the city level, the state level, or the federal level \u2014 then you\u2019re no representative for us. If you can\u2019t stand up to Donald Trump and his allies, then how are you supposed to stand up for us?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St. Louisans are calling on their elected officials to fight for more disaster relief, and also against attacks by the state legislature. At the direct request<\/a> of President Donald Trump, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a former car dealership owner turned Republican politician, is attempting to further gerrymander<\/a> the voting map for Kansas City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kehoe also wants to abolish Missouri\u2019s income tax<\/a>, which critics say will send the state into a budget tailspin not unlike Sam Brownback\u2019s failed tax-cutting policy, the \u201cKansas Experiment<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Doha
Hasan Piker on stage during Web Summit Qatar 2026 in Doha. Photo: Shauna Clinton\/Sportsfile for Web Summit Qatar via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The governor also caused an uproar by legally invading St. Louis in 2025, taking over state control of the city\u2019s police department.<\/a> In doing so, Kehoe defied a 2012 statewide vote which granted local control of the police to the St. Louis mayor. Missouri is the only state in the U.S. where the governor controls the police<\/a> of the major cities, including the police budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many St. Louisans are vehemently opposed<\/a> to the police takeover and disgruntled with the status quo, but Missouri\u2019s 1st District includes several neighborhoods in St. Louis County that went heavily<\/a> for Bell in 2024. G Gamache, a union organizer with Starbucks Workers United who attended May Day rally, told The Intercept that Bush is still the fighter St. Louis needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you see her in person, you see how much she hasn\u2019t changed who she is. \u2026 She\u2019s still 10 toes down on things like Medicare for All, affordable housing, and ending the genocide of Palestinians by Israel. A wide majority of Democratic voters, and even many Republican voters, even in Missouri, support all these things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in August 2025, Bush\u2019s opponent, Wesley Bell, held his first and only in-person town hall, which was disrupted by protesters. Local activists challenged the congressman on his support of Israel, his refusal to call Gaza a genocide, and his trip to Tel Aviv<\/a>, which was sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the town hall, a man providing security for Bell was caught on video<\/a> attempting to forcefully physically remove the protesters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between Missouri Republicans and Bell, the 2.8 million St. Louisans living in the greater metropolitan area are generally represented by pro-Israel politicians. According to the Pew Research Center<\/a>, most U.S. voters have soured on Israel, which is now engaged in an invasion of Lebanon<\/a>, continued violence in the West Bank, the further annihilation of Gaza<\/a>, and now an ongoing conflict with Iran<\/a>, which has shut down the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, a critical shipping lane. As of April 2026, 60 percent of U.S. adults have an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53 percent last year, and the trend seems to be accelerating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bell has tried to square this circle by recognizing the Armenian genocide<\/a>, voting against Trump\u2019s Big Beautiful Bill, and denouncing Kehoe\u2019s attempts to redraw Missouri\u2019s congressional maps. Since the initial almost $9 million, AIPAC has continued supporting Bell, directing donors through its PAC\u2019s portal<\/a> to fund his campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blase, the Bell spokesperson, told The Intercept that \u201cCongressman Bell remains focused on standing up to Trump and fighting for the people of Missouri\u2019s first Congressional District.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Bush called for a ceasefire early on, her criticisms of Israel don\u2019t quite explain why AIPAC would spend so much on a Missouri congressional campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A more complete answer may lie in Missouri as a node in the country\u2019s military\u2013industrial complex. St. Louis is home to several Boeing facilities, with the Seattle-headquartered aerospace company selling a range of weapons to the Israeli military, including F-35 and F-15IA fighter jets<\/a>, missiles<\/a>, and smart bombs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, pro-Palestine student groups in St. Louis protested the St. Charles Boeing facility over a $2.2 billion contract<\/a> to manufacture small-diameter bombs sold to foreign nations, including Israel, and in 2024, the Washington University Student Union Senate passed a resolution to divest from Boeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of its corporate PR products, a 2025 Boeing video highlighted St. Louis as \u201cFighterland U.S.A.<\/a>,\u201d nicknamed for its importance in military jet manufacturing across the Lambert International Airport and Scott Air Force Base complexes. In February 2026, the company announced the return of its Defense, Space & Security headquarters<\/a> to St. Louis. Missouri\u2019s Whiteman Air Force Base<\/a> in Knob Noster, near Kansas City, made headlines in June 2025 as playing a key role in launching strikes against Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St. Louis is also home to a number of companies on pro-Palestine boycott lists. The North American headquarters of Israeli Chemical Limited Group \u2014 which manufactures fertilizers, metals, and chemical products including white phosphorus \u2014 is in Creve Coeur, Missouri. As Human Rights Watch reported<\/a>, Israel used white phosphorus in populated areas of Gaza and Lebanon in October and November 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bush told The Intercept that Missouri voters are agitated enough to show up and oust Bell, pointing to polling that shows the race to be neck and neck<\/a>. But Bush is positioning herself as a fighter for people who have long felt left behind by the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you hurt my people, I can\u2019t sit back and do nothing. \u2026 If we wait on the feckless people in some of these seats to do it, it\u2019ll never happen,\u201d she promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT\u2019S BEEN A DEVASTATING<\/u><\/strong> year for journalism \u2014 the worst in modern U.S. history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government\u2019s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump\u2019s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Devin Thomas O\u2019Shea<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Insurgent candidates like Cori Bush are tapping Piker as a campaign surrogate \u2014 but they still face an uphill battle to winning. Devin Thomas O\u2019Shea May 8 2026 (TheIntercept.com) Devin Thomas O\u2019Shea is the author of \u201cThe Veiled Prophet: Secret Societies, White Supremacy, and the Struggle for St. Louis,\u201d publishing with Haymarket… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48172,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48171\/revisions\/48172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}