William Lawrence, the Democratic nominee in Michigan's competitive Seventh Congressional District, was filmed flattering far-left streamer Hasan Piker and lobbying for a spot on his show, a connection that could haunt him in a district that twice voted for President Donald Trump.
Video circulating online shows Lawrence approaching Piker at a Michigan campaign event for Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, telling the controversial influencer "You're the man" and handing him a piece of paper while pitching his progressive credentials. El-Sayed, who serves as a connector between the two, introduced Lawrence to Piker at what the Washington Free Beacon reported was an event believed to have taken place in early April.
Lawrence, a climate activist, Democratic Socialists of America member, and cofounder of the Sunrise Movement, won the Democratic primary for the Seventh District earlier this month, defeating former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and Navy SEAL veteran Matt Maasdam. He now faces Republican incumbent Tom Barrett in a race rated a tossup, in a state that twice backed Donald Trump for president.
The video raises a pointed question: Why is a nominee in one of the most competitive House seats in the country seeking the approval of a streamer whose public record includes praising Mao Zedong, expressing support for Hamas and Hezbollah, and, according to the Anti-Defamation League, declaring that "America deserved 9/11"?
In the video, Lawrence does not play coy about what he wants. He tells Piker directly: "I'd love to get on the stream sometime." He then rattles off his résumé, "progressive organizer, cofounder of the Sunrise Movement, running against two carpetbagging war hawks", and summarizes his platform in bumper-sticker fashion: "pro-Palestine, anti-war, yes to housing and health care, no to bombs and billionaires."
Piker, for his part, was described as friendly but noncommittal. He accepted the piece of paper Lawrence handed him. What was on it remains unclear.
The clip was posted to X by a user named Jack, who wrote: "Michigan Democrat William Lawrence FAN GIRLS and loses his mind over meeting Hasan Piker." Jack added: "They are putting a terrorist sympathizer on a pedestal." That characterization is Jack's own, but the underlying footage speaks for itself: a congressional nominee treating a streamer with a long trail of incendiary statements as a political kingmaker.
Lawrence's campaign website reinforces the alignment. It includes a promise to prosecute "the Epstein class" and contains language accusing Israel of committing "genocide." His membership in the DSA places him on the party's furthest left flank, a faction that has produced winners in deep-blue strongholds like New York City but faces a far murkier path in a Midwest swing district.
Hasan Piker is not a fringe figure by accident. He built his career as a recurring guest on The Young Turks, the YouTube show hosted by his uncle Cenk Uygur. (The show's name, as the Free Beacon noted, is taken from the group responsible for the Armenian genocide.) From that launchpad, Piker became one of the most-watched political streamers on the internet, and one of the most controversial.
During a 2025 visit to Beijing, Piker told viewers he was stopped by a police officer who thought he was mocking Mao Zedong. Piker's response, sourced to Yahoo News:
"I got stopped by a cop who thought I was, like, making fun of, of Mao Zedong, which I never would and never will. Mao Zedong is... one of the great leaders of, of this world, OK? A man who changed the entire universe, the entire planet."
Mao Zedong's regime killed tens of millions of Chinese citizens through famine, forced collectivization, and political purges. Calling him "one of the great leaders of this world" is not a slip of the tongue. It is a statement of values.
In April 2026, Piker appeared on the liberal podcast Pod Save America and, as documented by the ADL, offered this formulation:
"I'm a lesser-evil voter and therefore I would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time."
A month earlier, on a May 2025 Twitch stream with Ethan Klein, Piker had already laid out his position on Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government:
"I do not have a single issue with Hezbollah as a form of militancy trying to incur penalties on the genocidal state of Israel."
And when asked on a June 2025 podcast to name his favorite flag, Piker answered with one word: "Hezbollah." The ADL has also attributed to Piker the statement that "America deserved 9/11," and the New Republic has reported that he accused Orthodox Jews of being "inbred." Separately, he has been described as marketing himself as a "total misogynist" and pickup artist.
This is the man William Lawrence told, on camera, "You're the man."
The event where Lawrence courted Piker was organized for Abdul El-Sayed's Senate campaign. El-Sayed, who won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary and has refused to distance himself from Piker, used the streamer as a campaign surrogate. The video offers a glimpse of Piker's influence within the progressive wing, candidates don't just tolerate him, they seek him out.
El-Sayed's primary victory was itself a warning sign for Democrats hoping to hold Michigan. Polls had shown him with a double-digit lead over moderate Rep. Haley Stevens, but he pulled out the nomination by less than one point. AP News reported that groups backing Stevens spent more than $50 million, including over $30 million from AIPAC and its affiliates, making it one of the largest outside spending efforts in a single race.
The general-election math is brutal for the progressive lane. Just The News reported that polling showed Stevens would narrowly lead Republican Mike Rogers 45.5% to 44.7% in a general election matchup, but El-Sayed would trail Rogers 38.7% to 49.0%, a gap of more than ten points. Democrats chose the candidate who polls worse by double digits against the Republican.
Sen. Bernie Sanders called El-Sayed's primary win "the biggest upset in the history of modern politics," the Washington Examiner reported. El-Sayed defeated Stevens despite being outspent at times by more than 10-to-1. He now champions Medicare for All, halting U.S. aid to Israel, taxing the wealthy, and abolishing ICE, a platform that may energize progressive donors but leaves moderate Michigan voters with nowhere to go.
El-Sayed and Piker have jointly brushed off criticism from establishment Democrats, including veteran strategist James Carville's threat to leave the party over its leftward drift. The pair's alliance is not incidental, it is strategic, and it now extends to a House nominee in a district Democrats cannot afford to lose.
Michigan's Seventh Congressional District is not Brooklyn. It is not the South Bronx. DSA candidates have romped to victory in progressive strongholds, but Lawrence is asking voters in a tossup swing district, one that backed Trump twice, to send a self-described democratic socialist to Congress.
Lawrence built his political identity around the Sunrise Movement, the progressive nonprofit that championed the Green New Deal. Elements of that proposal were later folded into the Inflation Reduction Act signed by former President Joe Biden. But Lawrence's pitch to Piker went well beyond climate policy. He framed his opponents, Brink, a career diplomat, and Maasdam, a decorated veteran, as "carpetbagging war hawks." He volunteered his pro-Palestine stance as a credential.
The fallout from El-Sayed's refusal to condemn Piker's 9/11 remarks has already pushed at least one former Biden press secretary to cross party lines. Lawrence's video adds another data point to a pattern: Democratic candidates in Michigan are not running from Piker. They are running toward him.
Republican incumbent Tom Barrett will face Lawrence in November. Barrett's campaign now has a piece of footage that writes its own attack ad: a Democratic nominee, in a district Trump carried twice, telling a streamer who praises Mao and backs Hamas, "You're the man."
Neither Lawrence nor Piker has publicly responded to the video's circulation. El-Sayed's own pattern of controversial associations suggests he sees no political cost in the alliance, at least not in a primary. The general election is a different audience.
Voters in Michigan's Seventh District didn't ask for a congressman who auditions for far-left streamers. They'll get their say in November, and the tape will be hard to explain away.
