Authenticity is not a new approach to content creation. But it is something that politicians struggle to achieve on their own – especially in an election cycle where many young voters are disillusioned with politics as a whole. Overall, young voters not very optimistic, according to NBC News’ Stay Tuned Gen Z poll of over 2,600 voters under 30 in September. According to a recent Pew study, most young people now also look for information on social media platforms.

Piker, 33, rose to online fame through the progressive YouTube show “The Young Turks,” founded and run by his uncle Cenk Uygar. After branching out on his own, he became a prominent voice online and gained a lot of fans and critics.

With that coverage came some controversy—in 2021, Piker said he was temporarily kicked from Twitch for using a derogatory term for white people.

Still, Piker’s success as a streamer is admired by other politicians, especially those who want to appeal to a similarly progressive audience.

“He kind of carved out the space for his style of political reporting,” said Austin MacNamara, known as Gremloe on Twitch, where he has built a following of about 18,500 people.

“He’s not the first person to get politically engaged on Twitch, but he’s definitely created a space where you can not just engage in debates or yelling at each other in a Discord call, but really discuss and analyze these issues and build a community around them, with other people who are really important and influential to me personally.”

Sean Wiggs, known on Twitch as SeanDaBlack, also credits Piker with being a major influence on his stream.

“I’ve been in the Hasan community for about 45 months now. He was the first person to introduce me to left-wing politics in a meaningful way,” said Wiggs, who has over 16,000 followers on Twitch, where he is one of the few Black creators on the platform who provides political commentary. “Hasan inspired me to also just be political, outside of being a creator, to be political and fight for people that I think should be fought for.” The Republican and Democratic parties have also noticed the influence creators can have on their audiences – and have increased their efforts to court creators over the past year in hopes of reaching out to more young voters.

In recent years, Piker said, he has noticed that the online political landscape has changed. In 2020, political discourse was “much more liberal or even left-leaning under Trump because of his counterculture status.”

Under President Joe Biden, Piker said, the “Gamergate culture war narrative” – referring to the increasing number of misogynistic, game-centric communities – have moved to the forefront of commentary. “With the rise of Andrew Tate clones, crypto bros and reactionary Shock Factor streamers, the peddlers of false masculinity have captured a lot of territory, namely the low-propensity voters who have notoriously favored Trump,” Piker said. “This presents a unique problem for the Democratic Party.”

Last month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago was the first to open its doors to social media content creators, with 200 of them receiving accreditation for the four-day event to increase their online presence.

For Piker, attending the DNC was a unique opportunity to give his audience a behind-the-scenes look. He describes himself as an entertainer whose goal is to help young people make more informed decisions.

“I have more access to politicians than I did in 2020, so I’m going to try to leverage that,” he said, adding that he also hopes to “engage Democrats on issues that I believe are important and will pay off in the election.”

Piker said he would like to see Democrats realistically address the high cost of living for young people, demand a ceasefire in Gaza and arms sales to Israeli forces, and fight for social justice.

Nearly 100 conservative influencers also attended the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July and created content for their audiences there as well. In recent months, former President Donald Trump has collaborated with major influencers popular with young men, including Kick streamer Adin Ross and YouTuber Logan Paul.

Some creators have said they have been offered money if they support political candidates. Content creator Tana Mongeau, host of the popular podcast “Cancelled,” recently made headlines after claiming in a recent episode that she was offered millions if she supported a political candidate from a party she doesn’t identify with. (She later wrote in the video’s comments section that she is “100% Democrat and voting for Kamala Harris.”) NBC News has not confirmed those claims. Piker, who said he would support Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said he has been “approached by political groups but not directly by a candidate.”

“I think they know better,” he said. “I welcome access every time. However, I will never change my mind for money. I’m not sure others who are not political commentators would hold themselves to similar standards.”

He has appeared in streams on his channel with politicians, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

Given the upcoming elections, Piker is slightly optimistic.

“I think Kamala Harris is much more responsive to grassroots demands than anyone I’ve seen in the last two election cycles, so that’s pretty good,” he said. “The election of Tim Walz was incredible. I think that’s why a lot of young people are motivated right now because they feel like they’re being heard.”

On November 5th, Piker will be ready for another busy day of streaming.

“I’ll be strapped to my chair as always and ready to provide real-time commentary,” he said. “Maybe more guests. I hope it’s Chappell Roan.”