Thomas Teepell rose from Hawley intern to operations director
The man who heckled Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed about the Muslim Brotherhood has been identified by the Guardian and the Handbasket as Thomas “Tommy” Teepell, the son of longtime Republican strategist Timothy “Timmy” Teepell.
FEC filings reviewed by the Guardian show that on September 29, America Next, a 501(c)(4) non-profit founded by former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, paid $250,000 to Breakthrough LLC, the firm of the elder Teepell. The filing describes the payment as funding “canvassing and influencer marketing” in opposition to El-Sayed. It is the only independent expenditure America Next has reported since 2015, when the group paid OnMessage Inc for television advertising backing Jindal’s presidential campaign. No filing reviewed by the Guardian shows Thomas Teepell was paid by Breakthrough or America Next.
In the exchange, 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?” What followed, the Guardian reported, was a five-minute exchange in which El-Sayed queried the man about the constitutional guarantees of religious freedom. The exchange has drawn over 50 million views across several social media platforms.
America Next has been trying to gin up “organic” town hall opposition to El-Sayed, as the Handbasket report noted. On October 1, 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 Michigan Daily found no evidence that El-Sayed’s Republican opponent Mike Rogers’s campaign was involved in the plan to disrupt the Flint event. FEC records reviewed by the Guardian show no payments from the Rogers campaign to Breakthrough.
The Guardian reported that Timmy Teepell, Thomas Teepell, America Next and Hawley’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The El-Sayed campaign also did not respond to a request for comment, the Guardian said.
Staff records cited by the Guardian show Thomas Teepell joined Hawley’s Senate office as an intern in 2023 and rose to operations director before leaving in February. The Guardian reported that finding on Monday, citing staff records. Before that, according to his LinkedIn profile, he was a part-time associate at OnMessage Inc from May 2020 to May 2023. After leaving Hawley’s office, he became political director for Philip Sarnecki’s campaign for governor of Kansas; Sarnecki lost the Republican primary on August 4.
OnMessage’s archived biography of the elder Teepell describes him as Jindal’s “first chief of staff” and says he “served as lead consultant for senator Josh Hawley’s upset victory over incumbent Democrat senator Claire McCaskill” in 2018, the Guardian reported. FEC records show Hawley’s campaign paid OnMessage $7,489,181 during that election cycle. Teepell reportedly became Jindal’s chief of staff when Jindal took office as Louisiana governor 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.
America Next was launched by Jindal in 2013 as a policy non-profit, 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. According to other groups’ tax filings, American Action Network — a group the Guardian has previously described as a “dark-money outfit” and which the same outlet says is connected to House Republican leaders — gave America Next $500,000 for “issue support” in its tax year ending in June 2022. 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 $5,020,808 for “media services and consulting” against total expenses of $10,130,638, according to its 990 filing. FEC records show America Next has funded Republican Super Pacs at a level of at least $1,475,000 since 2018.
The Baton Rouge office suite shared by Breakthrough and America Next is also, the Guardian reported, the registered address of a Christian non-profit for which Timmy Teepell is the registered agent; the non-profit’s four directors include two other Teepell family members. The Guardian added that Hawley’s campaign committee has also paid Breakthrough. The Handbasket, the outlet noted, 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, the Guardian reported.
Religion News Service has reported that Feucht has prayed publicly for the elder Teepell’s political work. A video shows Feucht laying hands on the elder Teepell and praying over him and his family at an event in Florida; RNS reported Feucht saying, “We pray that Timmy would put more revivalists in public office.” The Guardian noted that the elder 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 speak on “2022 Forecast and Polling,” according to the event’s listing on Eventbrite, which gives 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 reviewed by the Guardian, and afterwards posted that it was a “huge privilege to be on the mall tonight with thousands and thousands of Christians gathered to worship and pray.” There, Feucht led the crowd in prayer for Hawley, “calling on God to elevate ‘men and women of faith’ into positions of political power,” RNS reported at the time. Feucht’s channel also carries a video of Hawley addressing his Let Us Worship event in Washington in 2022, the Guardian added.
Feucht’s ministry’s tax filings do not show when Timmy Teepell joined the board, the Guardian reported. Its most recent 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 list no return after 2020.
In June 2025, former staffers accused Feucht of “potential financial crimes” and spiritual abuse, and said that “the members of Mr Feucht’s board have 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 those allegations are true,” describing his accusers as “embittered, angry, upset … former volunteers” who “know nothing about our financial situation.” He said: “Every single penny that has been raised that you guys out there have donated has gone to fulfill its kingdom-ordained purpose.”
A California donor is separately suing Sean Feucht Ministries in federal court for fraud, the Guardian reported. 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 claims had not been pleaded with enough specificity, but allowed the donor to amend it. An amended complaint was filed on September 30. The ministry has argued that the claims are time-barred and barred by the church autonomy doctrine.
Their website testimony, the Guardian added, named Zoellner as a board member of Sean Feucht Ministries, and alleged that former key employees “were never made aware of their names.” It did not name Timmy Teepell. Feucht did not respond to RNS’s request for comment at the time.
The Guardian also reported that the outlet had previously reported on Canadian cities cancelling Feucht’s performances. The Guardian emailed Feucht for comment via Sean Feucht Ministries.
Republicans have pressed the Muslim Brotherhood line against El-Sayed for several weeks, the Guardian reported. Rogers raised alleged Brotherhood ties during a debate, and President Donald Trump has said without evidence that El-Sayed is “100%” Muslim Brotherhood. There is no evidence that El-Sayed has been involved with the group, the Guardian added.