Leftist streamer Hasan Piker gives Chris Rabb a boost during West Philadelphia campaign swing

In a livestreamed conversation in West Philadelphia on Thursday with one of the left’s most polarizing national figures, State Rep. Chris Rabb’s anti-establishment and anti-Israel platform — which has dominated his campaign and much of the rhetoric in the city’s heated race for Congress — got a massive megaphone.

Rabb appeared on controversial leftist streamer Hasan Piker’s show, cast to the host’s millions of followers and drawing hordes of young progressives to a pair of campaign events in the city.

During the two hours of raw, uninterrupted on-camera conversation, the duo gushed over cheesesteak egg rolls and General Roscoe’s chicken at Black Dragon Takeout, talked policy and lambasted Rabb’s rivals and the larger Democratic establishment. Piker’s stream, one of the largest platforms to host any of the candidates in the 3rd Congressional District race, was also likely to be the most controversial, Rabb acknowledged.

“I’m going to be slammed for even talking to you,” Rabb told Piker in the back seat of an SUV in between dinner and a fundraiser at Renata’s Kitchen. “But there’s a double standard, because as a Black progressive, I can’t do this. I’m part of the problem or whatever.”

Campaigning with Piker and appearing on his platform could give Rabb a surge of support — particularly among younger progressive voters — in the final stretch before the May 19 open Democratic primary in which he’s facing front-runners State Sen. Sharif Street and physician Ala Stanford for the seat that represents about half of Philadelphia, one of the bluest districts in the nation.

It could also cost him votes from those who’ve taken issue with some of Piker’s stances. As he’s stumped for other candidates in places like Michigan, the streamer has been at the center of a broad national debate about whether the Democratic Party should embrace figures who align with most of its views but who’ve also taken some controversial positions.

“Hasan Piker has a documented record of statements that we find deeply troubling,” said Jason Holtzman, chief of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

“He dismissed the sexual violence of [Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023]. He called Orthodox Jews ‘inbred.’ He compared Zionists to Nazis. He characterized Hamas as preferable to the state of Israel,” Holtzman said. “These are not edgy opinions. They are statements that minimize Jewish suffering, dehumanize Jewish people, and normalize violence against Jews and the Jewish state.”

Piker has walked back some of his comments, which often appear in marathon daily broadcasts on the livestreaming service Twitch. He hasn’t apologized for others, including anti-Zionist statements like that he would “vote for Hamas” over the Israeli regime.

Piker brushed off those concerns with Rabb, saying he’s a “vulgar person” who just has a passion for the issues he cares about.

“We now live in a pro-Trump universe where we should be speaking in the same exact way that regular folks speak,” Piker said. “I see no reason to censor myself or talk in a regular way.”

Rabb, who often uses profanity on the campaign trail and did so repeatedly with Piker Thursday night, agreed and said Piker’s popular streams were an “act of defiance” against corporate media and a federal government under President Donald Trump that he considers authoritarian.

An important part of that independent streak, Rabb said, is his own use of the word “genocide” to explicitly describe Israel’s attacks in Gaza. That position has become a defining issue in the race, separating him from Street and Stanford, who Rabb and his supporters have accused of benefiting from support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

AIPAC, a pro-Israel group that many Democrats have turned against, has not donated directly to Stanford, though groups supporting her received donations from political action committees aligned with AIPAC in a previous election cycle.

» READ MORE: Ala Stanford and Chris Rabb are trading accusations as AIPAC becomes a flashpoint in Philly’s U.S. House race

Rabb repeated throughout Piker’s stream — and specifically made it a key part of his pitch when asking for voters’ support and donations — that he refuses all corporate and AIPAC funds.

The question voters should be asking, he said, is which candidate “publicly disavows AIPAC and is willing to say there’s an ongoing genocide and we’re complicit with our tax dollars?”

Rabb has targeted young voters in particular with that message, using Piker’s visit to energize and rally them around the issue and his campaign.

At a canvassing kickoff event in West Philly’s Malcolm X Memorial Park just before meeting with Piker, he spoke to more than 100 mostly young people getting ready to knock on doors and said the Democratic Party had previously failed to motivate them to show up and vote.

“I’m not clowning young people. I’m clowning a Democratic machine whose only job is to turn out Democrats,” Rabb said. “That’s the one thing they’re supposed to do really well and they’re trash at it.”

At a fundraiser at Renata’s Kitchen a couple hours later, as many as 200 young enthusiastic fans waiting to see Piker alternated between Eagles chants and chants of “tax the rich,” and “free Palestine.” Beers in hand, some wore maroon Philadelphia Democratic Socialists of America hats on the day Rabb received the national Democratic Socialists organization’s endorsement. When Piker arrived, a woman in jeans and a brown leather jacket climbed a tree with one hand and held a cigarette in the other to get a closer look.

“After this Twitch stream, Chris is going to have even more enemies,” Piker told the crowd before denouncing AIPAC in colorful language.

More on the 3rd Congressional District race

• Meet the Democrats vying to replace Dwight Evans in Congress

• How the Middle East and the word 'genocide' became the defining issue of the Philly congressional race

• Philly’s competitive U.S. House race narrows — but big questions loom

• Sharif Street could become Pa.’s first Muslim member of Congress. But don’t make assumptions about his politics.

• Chris Rabb is trying to be the left’s standard-bearer as he runs for Congress. Will progressives rally around him?

• Ala Stanford is banking on a healthcare message to break through crowded Philly primary for Congress

• After a staffer allegedly took $161K, Chris Rabb rebounds to lead fundraising in Philly’s congressional race

• How two Philly congressional candidates are quietly guiding super PACs in plain sight