New York state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, a far-left Democrat now campaigning to fill an open House seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens, sat for a friendly interview released on Friday with a Twitch streamer who was once suspended from the platform for calling Jews a “demonic ethnicity.”

Valdez, who is backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter, joined a nearly hour-long virtual conversation with Michael Beyer, a fellow DSA member who uses the online moniker “Mike from PA” and has drawn criticism for invoking  antisemitic rhetoric about Jews and Israel.

Beyer, who now lives in Los Angeles, was suspended from Twitch last year after offensive comments about Jewish ethnicity he made during a livestream had been resurfaced online. “Jewish is not an ethnicity,” he said in remarks from 2024. “This constructed ethnicity, this demonic ethnicity —, wholly invented.”

The Anti-Defamation League commended Twitch’s decision to implement the suspension, saying that streamers “should use their platforms responsibly and not engage in inflammatory, dehumanizing and antisemitic rhetoric.” 

Beyer apologized for the comments, insisting that he had misspoken and had meant to say that “Jewish ethnicity in Israel is a Zionist construction and is intended to flatten the true diversity of Judaism.” 

Beyer has frequently used inflammatory rhetoric in his social media posts about Israel. He has said that “supporting Israel is treason,” referred to “Zionist spies in this country that must be rooted out” and criticized “Zionist scum,” among other incendiary comments. 

A mayoral candidate in Los Angeles, Rae Huang, who is also a DSA member, faced scrutiny this month after she accepted a campaign donation from Beyer, which she has refused to return.

Valdez, who is facing off against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in a competitive race to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), has long been an outspoken critic of Israel and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting the Jewish state. 

In a candidate questionnaire solicited by the DSA, Valdez pledged to “refrain from any affiliation with” what it called Zionist lobbying groups including J Street, AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel, according to a copy of the document obtained by Jewish Insider.

Shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Valdez also liked an X post celebrating the violence, according to a screenshot shared with JI. “Glory to the resistance and the people of Palestinian,” the post said on Oct. 7.

During her new interview with Beyer, whose Twitch account claims more than 100,000 followers, Valdez was asked by the streamer if she believed “we need to be challenging more of these kind of Zionist politicians, or these right-wing Democrats.”

“This is such a DSA conversation,” Valdez replied, without directly alluding to Zionists. “This is exactly why I really love being a member of DSA.”

Elsewhere, she said she was running for Congress “in part because the Democratic status quo politicians turned away from our base when they committed to upholding Israel as an apartheid state and as a genocidal state.”

“Seeing how the Democratic base has shifted position on Palestine and Israel over the last two years,. I think there’s a real hunger within the Democratic base to think about our foreign policy and the investments that we’ve been making,” she told Beyer. 

Valdez’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Friday afternoon about her appearance on Beyer’s show or the X post she had liked about the Oct. 7 attacks.

Her primary in the 7th Congressional District has been shaping up as a clash between the socialist left  championed by Valdez and traditional progressivism embodied by Reynoso. 

In a recent interview, Reynoso said he viewed himself as the underdog in the race, even as he holds support from the outgoing veteran incumbent as well as state Attorney General Letitia James and the left-wing Working Families Party.