The man who attempted to ambush Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed with a question about his supposed allegiance to the Muslim Brotherhood – which El-Sayed parlayed into a viral clip for his campaign – is the son of a political operator who recently received $250,000 for “canvassing and influencer marketing” against El-Sayed, the Guardian has learned. In the now-famous exchange, a man – first identified by the Handbasket as Thomas “Tommy” Teepell – asked El-Sayed if he would “disavow” the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed said he would, but then asked: “What are you implying?
Do you assume that I wouldn’t?” What followed was a five-minute exchange that has drawn over 50 million views across several social media platforms, in which El-Sayed queries the man about the guarantees of religious freedom in the constitution. Teepell is the son of Timothy “Timmy” Teepell, a longtime strategist for the Missouri Republican senator Josh Hawley as well as former Republican Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. Timmy Teepell’s firm, Breakthrough LLC, was paid $250,000 on 29 September by America Next, a 501(c)(4) non-profit with which it shares a Baton Rouge office suite, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
The filing says the money would fund the canvassing and influencer marketing in opposition to El-Sayed. It is the only independent expenditure the group has reported since 2015, when it paid OnMessage Inc for television advertising backing Bobby Jindal’s presidential campaign. America Next has been trying to gin up “organic” town hall opposition to El-Sayed, as the Handbasket report noted.
On 1 October, a member of the University of Michigan College Republicans, saying he was acting for America Next, reportedly offered students $200 to boo and question El-Sayed at a town hall in Flint. The same Baton Rouge suite is also the registered address of a Christian non-profit for which Teepell is the registered agent, and whose four directors include two other Teepell family members. Hawley’s campaign committee has also paid Breakthrough. (The Handbasket report also outlines the close relationship between Sean Feucht and the elder Teepell.) Pennsylvania business records list Timmy Teepell as a director of Sean Feucht’s ministry, which owns 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 filings shows that Thomas Teepell was paid by Breakthrough or America Next. Jindal launched America Next as a policy non-profit in 2013, and its website still publishes his columns.
The group does not disclose its donors. In the year to July 2024 its tax filings reported $5,066,000 in contributions. Other groups’ tax filings show where some of the money came from.
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