Viral El-Sayed heckler unmasked as son of GOP operative paid $250K to oppose him: report

The man who tried to ambush Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed with a question about the Muslim Brotherhood is the son of a longtime Republican operative whose firm was recently paid $250,000 to campaign against him.

The Handbasket first identified the questioner as Thomas “Tommy” Teepell, and The Guardian followed up that reporting by confirming that his father is Timothy “Timmy” Teepell, a longtime strategist for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and a former chief of staff to ex-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

At a town hall, the younger Teepell asked El-Sayed whether he would “disavow” the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed said he would, then asked: “What are you implying? Do you assume that I wouldn’t?”

In the five-minute exchange that followed, El-Sayed pressed Teepell on the Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom, and a video clip of the encounter has drawn more than 50 million views and become a viral moment for his campaign.

A Federal Election Commission filing shows the elder Teepell’s firm, Breakthrough LLC, was paid $250,000 on Sept. 29 by America Next for “canvassing and influencer marketing” in opposition to El-Sayed.

America Next is a nonprofit that Jindal founded in 2013, and it shares a Baton Rouge office suite with Breakthrough. The El-Sayed payment is the only independent expenditure the group has reported since 2015, when it backed Jindal’s presidential bid. The group does not disclose its donors, but it reported more than $5 million in contributions in the year ending July 2024.

The group has been trying to stir up seemingly organic opposition to El-Sayed at town halls. According to the Michigan Daily, a member of the University of Michigan College Republicans who said he was acting for the group offered students $200 on Oct. 1 to boo and question El-Sayed at a town hall in Flint. The Daily found no evidence that the campaign of El-Sayed’s GOP opponent, Mike Rogers, was involved.

The younger Teepell has deep ties to Hawley’s orbit. He joined Hawley’s Senate office as an intern in 2023 and rose to operations director before leaving in February, The Guardian reported Monday, citing staff records. He later served as political director for a failed Kansas gubernatorial campaign.

Nothing in the filings shows that Tommy Teepell was paid by Breakthrough or America Next. The Teepells, America Next and Hawley’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

The elder Teepell is also listed as a director of the ministry run by evangelical activist Sean Feucht. The ministry faces a federal fraud lawsuit from a donor and accusations of financial misconduct from former staffers. Feucht has denied wrongdoing.

Republicans have pushed the Muslim Brotherhood line against El-Sayed for weeks. Rogers raised the claim during a debate, and President Donald Trump has said without evidence that El-Sayed is “100 percent” Muslim Brotherhood.

There is no evidence that El-Sayed has any ties to the group.