A Republican political operative tried to trap the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, into a viral “gotcha” moment. He ended up becoming the story instead.
On Saturday, a man posing as a young Michigan voter named Tommy at a town hall in Caro, Michigan, asked El-Sayed if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed, sensing the bigoted motive behind the question, immediately disavowed the question, and pressed Tommy on why he was asking him specifically that question.
Tommy was evasive, repeatedly saying that he had not heard El-Sayed disavow the organization, and El-Sayed pointed out that Tommy was assuming that El-Sayed had a “higher order allegiance” than the Constitution. El-Sayed asked Tommy if he would “disavow any attempt to read any religious doctrine into the laws of our country.” Tommy said he wouldn’t, and El-Sayed called him out for failing to understand the Constitution.
This is Tommy. Tommy had a question about my allegiances. Listen to the end to hear about his. https://t.co/p09eMtsh0x
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) October 18, 2026
El-Sayed’s campaign quickly turned the exchange into a video clip, which subsequently went viral. As of Monday morning, the clip has 13 million views on X alone.
Not surprisingly, later reporting revealed that Tommy is actually Thomas Teepell, the operations director for Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley and the son of Timmy Teepell, who used to work for former Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal.
The whole Q&A appears to be part of a Republican influencer campaign to try to embarrass Abdul El-Sayed. Earlier this month, The Michigan Daily reported that the conservative PAC America Next offered College Republicans $200 to boo El-Sayed at a town hall in Flint and ask provocative questions.
The Teepells are involved in a similar campaign, with Thomas’s father’s organization, Breakthrough LLC, receiving $250,000 from Jindal’s dark money organization for influencer marketing against Abdul El-Sayed. The attempt has clearly backfired, as El-Sayed turned the exchange into a positive clip for his senatorial campaign.
