Antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker is scheduled to speak at a University of Texas campus event on Wednesday. Despite the event’s backing from the student Democratic Party group on campus, most Texas Democrats running for office in the historically conservative state have been silent when it comes to speaking out against the far-left influencer. 

Texas is one of the most prized political battlegrounds in the fight for control of Congress, hosting a hotly contested governor’s race, a neck-and-neck Senate race and four House races rated by the Cook Political Report as highly competitive. All of the close races are taking place in conservative-leaning constituencies, where candidates are typically incentivized to distance themselves from extremists or ideologues. 

So far, among Texas Democrats, only Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) has spoken out against Piker, saying that leaders shouldn’t remain silent “when someone has a history of hateful comments about Jewish Americans, 9/11, and Hamas terrorism.” Cuellar, a leading moderate Democrat, is running for reelection in a redrawn district that President Donald Trump carried by a double-digit margin. 

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin condemned Piker in an interview with Fox News this month: “Let me just say that I think it’s absolutely disgusting and deplorable the things that Hasan Piker has said, right? But he does not represent the Democratic Party, and he certainly doesn’t represent the viewpoints of almost every one of our candidates and our elected officials.” But aside from Cuellar, none of the other Texas Democrats on the ballot have volunteered the same criticism. 

While the DNC generally supports all Democratic entities, the University of Texas’ party chapter is an independent organization and the DNC has no oversight or authority over their events.

Republicans, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have spoken out against the event, but it hasn’t become a significant issue on the campaign trail. University leaders have also remained silent, declining interview requests from Jewish Insider and Axios to talk about the upcoming event. 

Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX), who co-chairs the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, has not responded to multiple requests for comment about Piker.

Piker, who has an extensive history of anti-American and antisemitic rhetoric, recently drew more scrutiny for telling Axios that he believes the United States conducts more terrorism in the world than al-Qaida. Piker, as part of a college tour this month, spoke last week about the “end of Zionism” at Cornell University to a packed auditorium. But the Cornell event, like many other Piker events on campus, was hosted by a number of far-left, anti-Israel groups. The UT event, by contrast, is sponsored by College Democrats.

Jews make up less than 1% of the Texas electorate, but could end up being a key swing bloc in the unusually close governor’s race between Abbott and Democrat Gina Hinojosa and the battleground Senate race between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.