Former Josh Hawley aide exposed after heckling Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed
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Congressional staff records identified Thomas Teepell, once tied to Senator Josh Hawley, as the man who interrupted Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed at a Michigan town hall and pushed him to denounce the Muslim Brotherhood.
Congressional staff records confirm that the man who disrupted Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed at a Michigan town-hall was Thomas Teepell, a former aide to Republican Senator Josh Hawley. Teepell, who called himself only “Tommy” during the event, asked El-Sayed whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed answered yes and then turned the question back to the room, pointing to the ugly implication of a “dual loyalty” smear.
El-Sayed then challenged the nature of the questioning, likening it to historic doubts about John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism, and stressed that he was running for Senate as a Muslim American. After the brief exchange, Teepell left the room.
Records show Teepell joined Hawley’s office as an intern in 2023, later became operations director, and then left in February. He later served as political director for Philip Sarnecki’s Kansas gubernatorial campaign, which lost the Republican primary on August 4. Teepell is the son of Republican strategist Timmy Teepell, a longtime adviser to Hawley and former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
The incident fits a broader pattern of Republican candidates trafficking in insinuations about El-Sayed’s alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a claim that El-Sayed and his campaign have repeatedly denied. President Donald Trump has also repeated, without evidence, that El-Sayed is a member of the group.
El-Sayed currently leads a tight Senate race, with recent polls showing a narrow margin over Republican opponent Mike Rogers. He is scheduled to campaign with former President Barack Obama in Detroit on October 24, the first day of in-person early voting, before Election Day on November 3.