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Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI) on Wednesday told Semafor, “I will not stand beside someone who has allowed distinctly anti-American sentiment to enter our public dialogue.” She made similar remarks on CNN.
Scholten has endorsed Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. Semafor Congressional Reporter Nicholas Wu had asked Scholten whether she would support former public-health official Abdul El-Sayd, who’s leading in the polls, if he wins the primary.
Apparently Scholten was referring, as other Stevens supporters have, to El-Sayed campaigning with Hasan Piker1, a controversial left-wing streamer. Piker has made provocative, allegedly hateful statements about America, Israel, and Jewish people. Piker doesn’t stand by all of them, but El-Sayed has stood by Piker.
El-Sayed himself is a target, as well. On Thursday night, Stevens Tweeted to El-Sayed, “Everyone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans.”
It’s fair to hold candidates accountable for who they choose to campaign with. But that accountability is often aimed disproportionately at the left.
Meanwhile, as the left’s public associations draw criticism, the covert right-wing associations of more conservative Democrats go largely ignored.
One of Stevens’s most important supporters is a longtime participant in an antisemitic, anti-Catholic, anti-LGBTQ+, and misogynistic Bible study sponsored by congressional Republican leadership.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), the party’s primary fundraising committee for Senate races.
In theory, Gillibrand and the DSCC aren’t supposed to put their thumb on the scale in primary races. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they recruit candidates to put on the scale.
Gillibrand has been pushing Stevens’s campaign reportedly since at least last July. Just not openly.
Last August, Gillibrand told NOTUS that she attends the weekly Capitol Ministries Senate Bible study. What neither she nor NOTUS mentioned was that her Bible study teaches that the Jews killed Jesus. This toxic canard, denounced by all major religions, is the primal bedrock of antisemitism.
Two months before Gillibrand’s comments to NOTUS, and one month before her support for Stevens was reported, Capitol Ministries leader Ralph Drollinger had taught Gillibrand’s Senate Bible study group that Israel “crucified their Messiah.” This sin has not been redeemed, Drollinger said, referring to “the present apostasy of Israel, having executed the Messiah.”
He made similar remarks in a video and pamphlet for that lesson.
Drollinger also called Israel smart and financially sharp, stereotypes that may sound like praise but perpetuate antisemitic tropes.
In addition, Drollinger has a long history of anti-Catholic, anti-LGBTQ+, and misogynistic statements. He also teaches his White House, Senate, and House study groups that the Bible proves that God doesn’t want government helping the needy.
His Bible studies are sponsored by Trump appointees including Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) sponsor Drollinger’s study groups in their respective chambers.
Gillibrand, who has hedged about whether she’s still Catholic, told NOTUS that she considered Drollinger’s Bible study “rigorous.”
Gillibrand is also a long-time participant in weekly Senate prayer breakfasts facilitated by the Fellowship Foundation, even though faith groups, secular groups, and LGBTQ+ organizations warned that The Fellowship uses prayer breakfasts to build right-wing, anti-LGBTQ+ networks.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), for years The Fellowship’s most prominent Democrat, has also endorsed Stevens. So has former Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), a foe of reproductive rights who once lived in Fellowship housing at C Street.
Gillibrand said of her weekly religious events in the Senate, “It’s just a very good discipline for me to always remind myself why I’m here and why the work that I do matters.”
When I asked Gillibrand’s office to comment in January, there was no response.
Her support for Drollinger, or at least for Capitol Ministries, raises the question of whether she would encourage Stevens to join her right-wing religious meetings.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), for instance, helped Drollinger try to recruit new members of Congress to Drollinger’s Bible study. Not publicly, just in a letter to members that I obtained.
Gluesenkamp Perez tried to keep it quiet, not responding to my reporting about it until her constituents demanded answers.
While progressive Democrats have been under fire about their public, left-wing associations, Gluesenkamp Perez isn’t the only ostensible centrist who’s tried to hide right-wing ties.
Gillibrand, for instance, revealed to a religious podcast, but not mainstream media, that her plan for countering Pres. Donald Trump was to rely on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD).
Thune, she explained, was in her other weekly Bible study. “He is always going to try to do the right thing.”
In May, I revealed that Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) — who just founded a group targeting his party’s left wing — for years covered up his Fellowship-subsidized housing at the group’s controversial Washington townhouse, C Street.
Just as Gillibrand has kept her ties to The Fellowship and Drollinger quiet, she has yet to publicly acknowledge helping Stevens and other favored candidates, even though she heads the DSCC.
At the end of July 2025, about three months after Stevens entered the race, CNN reported that Gillibrand was covertly on board, funneling donor money to Stevens. Secretly.
“[T]wo people involved in Michigan politics said Gillibrand has privately encouraged donors to support Stevens,” CNN revealed.
In September, Politico reported on what it called “the closest link so far between Stevens and the DSCC’s preference for her in Michigan’s three-way primary.”
Gillibrand had invited Stevens to a two-day DSCC “Napa Retreat,” in California’s wine country. Again, secretly. Politico obtained the invitation. The resort accomodations included a spa and a “Tuscan-European vibe.”
As recently as this April, NOTUS reported that Stevens was still “DSCC Chair Kirsten Gillibrand’s private preference,” even though Stevens “had a rough start in the Democratic primary and isn’t gaining any clear traction.”
Keeping her religious associations private means Gillibrand hasn’t had to answer for them. Keeping her support for Stevens secret means Stevens hasn’t had to answer for Gillibrand the way El-Sayed has had to answer for Piker.
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I’m an independent journalist whose reporting is made possible by reader support. As a former executive producer at MSNBC, I helped create Up w/ Chris Hayes and previously was a senior producer on Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann. Your paid subscription helps me keep reporting.
Piker is a former colleague of mine at The Young Turks.
After Gillibrand’s sanctimonious holier-than-thou shit which led to the ouster/resignation of Al Franken, I’m no supporter of her. She and Rep Glue-Perez are DINOs, pretending to be “for the people” while avoiding the truths about their republican bible study groups. When their terms are up, I’ll support candidates to oust both of them.
I'm disgusted that Gillibrand is my senator I tried switching from independent to Democrat registration but they claimed I was a day late even though I did it online. I so wanted to vote against her in the primary! As far as I'm concerned Gillibrand is a conservative and shouldn't even be labeled a Democrat.