The man who heckled El-Sayed is the son of a Republican adviser paid for ‘influencer marketing’ | Michigan

The man who tried to ambush Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed with a question about his alleged allegiance to the Muslim Brotherhood – which El-Sayed turned into a viral clip for his campaign – is the son of a political operative who was recently paid $250,000 for “prospecting and influence marketing” against El-Sayed, the Guardian has learned.

In that now-famous exchange, a man – first identified by Handbasket as Thomas “Tommy” Teepell – asked El-Sayed if he would “disavow” the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed replied that he would, but then asked: “What are you implying? Do you think I wouldn’t do it?” What followed was a five-minute exchange that attracted more than 50 million views on several social media platforms, during which El-Sayed questioned the man about the guarantees of religious freedom in the constitution.

Teepell is the son of Timothy “Timmy” Teepell, a longtime strategist for Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley as well as former Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal. Timmy Teepell’s company, Breakthrough LLC, received $250,000 on September 29 from America Next, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit with which it shares an office in Baton Rouge, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

The filing says the money would be used to finance canvassing and influence marketing against El-Sayed. It was the group’s only reported independent expense since 2015, when it paid OnMessage Inc for television advertising supporting Bobby Jindal’s presidential campaign.

America Next attempted to generate “organic” opposition to El-Sayed, as the Handbasket report notes. On October 1, a member of the University of Michigan College Republicans, claiming he was acting for America Next, allegedly offered $200 to students to boo and question El-Sayed at a Flint town hall.

The same Baton Rouge suite is also the registered address of a Christian nonprofit organization of which Teepell is the registered agent and whose four directors include two other members of the Teepell family. Hawley’s campaign committee also paid for Breakthrough. (The Handbasket report also highlights the close relationship between Sean Feucht and the elder Teepell.)

Pennsylvania business records list Timmy Teepell as director of Sean Feucht’s ministry, who has a townhouse on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Timmy Teepell, Thomas Teepell, America Next and Hawley’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Nothing in the documents shows that Thomas Teepell was paid by Breakthrough or America Next.

Jindal launched America Next as a political nonprofit in 2013, and his website still publishes his columns. The group does not disclose its donors. In the year through July 2024, his tax returns showed $5,066,000 in contributions.

Tax returns from other groups show where some of the money comes from. American Action Network, a group that the Guardian has previously described as a dark money group and which is linked to House Republican leaders, gave America Next $500,000 for “program support” in its fiscal year ending June 2022, according to its tax filing for that year. Secure Florida’s Future, a 501(c)(4) based in Tallahassee, gave America Next $250,000 in 2022, according to its own filing.

In 2022, America Next paid OnMessage Inc $5,020,808 for “media and consulting services,” compared to total expenses of $10,130,638, according to its 990 filing for the year.

America Next has also funded Republican Super Pacs, giving them at least $1,475,000 since 2018, according to FEC records.

The ministry’s tax returns also don’t show when he joined. Its latest public return, for 2020, lists three directors: John Feucht, Robert Zoellner and Alvin Chun. It does not mention Timmy Teepell or OnMessage, as RNS reported in 2024. The ministry’s revenue that year was $5,314,148, up from $283,526 in 2019. IRS records now classify Sean Feucht Ministries as a church, a category that is not required to file public returns, and do not list any returns after 2020.

In June 2025, former staffers accused Feucht of “potential financial crimes” and spiritual abuse, and said that “members of Mr. Feucht’s board potentially failed in their fiduciary duty to exercise appropriate oversight,” as RNS reported.

In a video posted on June 11, 2025, Feucht said “none of these allegations are true,” describing his accusers as “bitter, angry, upset…former volunteers” who “know nothing about our financial situation.” He said: “Every penny collected and donated by you has served to accomplish the goal ordained by the kingdom. »

Separately, a California donor is suing Sean Feucht Ministries in federal court for fraud. The complaint, filed in March, alleges that a $250,000 donation solicited in 2023 for Feucht’s Let Us Worship tour was “diverted, in whole or in part, to other uses controlled by Mr. Feucht.” A judge dismissed the original complaint in September, finding that the fraud allegations had not been pleaded with sufficient specificity, but allowed the donor to amend it, and an amended complaint was filed on September 30. The ministry argued that the claims were barred and barred by the doctrine of church autonomy.

Their testimony on their website named Zoellner as a board member of Sean Feucht Ministries and alleged that former key employees “were never informed of their names.” He didn’t name Timmy Teepell. Feucht did not respond to RNS’s request for comment at the time.

Feucht prayed publicly for the elder Teepell’s political work. Getting his hands on Teepell at an event in Florida, Feucht said, “We pray that Timmy will appoint more revivalists to public office,” according to RNS. A video shows Feucht praying for Teepell and his family. Teepell was also on the bill at Feucht’s “Hold the Line” conference at the Trump International Hotel in Washington on September 11, 2021, scheduled to talk about “2022 Forecasts and Polls,” according to the event’s listing on Eventbrite, which lists his name as “Timmy Teeple.”

Hawley spoke at Feucht’s Let Us Worship rally on the National Mall in October 2020, according to a Daily Caller video, and later posted that it was “a tremendous privilege to be at the mall tonight with thousands and thousands of Christians gathered to worship and pray.”

There, Feucht led the crowd in a prayer for Hawley, “calling on God to elevate ‘men and women of faith’ to positions of political power,” RNS reported at the time. Feucht’s channel also airs a video of Hawley speaking at his Let Us Worship event in Washington in 2022.

The Guardian has previously reported that Canadian cities have canceled Feucht performances.

The Guardian emailed Feucht for comment via Sean Feucht Ministries.

Teepell reportedly became Jindal’s chief of staff when Jindal took office as governor of Louisiana in January 2008, and left the post in 2011 to become a partner at OnMessage. He managed Jindal’s 2016 presidential campaign, the Guardian reported in 2015.

OnMessage’s biography of Teepell, archived in 2019, describes him as Jindal’s “first chief of staff” and says he “served as lead consultant for Sen. Josh Hawley’s upset victory over Democratic incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill” in 2018. Hawley’s campaign paid OnMessage $7,489,181 during this election cycle, according to FEC records.

The younger Teepell joined Hawley’s Senate office as an intern in 2023 and became director of operations before leaving in February, the Guardian reported Monday, citing personnel records. Before that, he was a part-time associate at OnMessage Inc from May 2020 to May 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile. After leaving Hawley’s office, he became political director of Philip Sarnecki’s campaign for governor of Kansas. Sarnecki lost the Republican primary on August 4.

The Republicans have supported the Muslim Brotherhood line against El-Sayed for several weeks. His opponent, Mike Rogers, raised alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood during a debate, and Donald Trump claimed without evidence that El-Sayed was “100 percent” Muslim Brotherhood. There is no evidence that El-Sayed was involved in this group.

The Michigan Daily found no evidence that the Rogers campaign was involved in the plan to disrupt the Flint town hall, and FEC records show no payments from the Rogers campaign to Breakthrough.

The El-Sayed campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.