Paul Teller Discusses Journey in the Conservative Political Movement

Paul Teller, executive vice president of Advancing American Freedom, sat down with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy on Tuesday for an exclusive interview to discuss his journey in the conservative political movement through the years and how he is working to advance conservative principles through Advancing American Freedom.

Teller has been with Advancing American Freedom since its inception in January 2021, after serving as a liaison to conservatives in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and to conservative policy stakeholders for President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

Teller, whose academic background includes Duke University and American University, said he started working in conservative politics during grad school and eventually landed on Capitol Hill with the Republican Study Committee (RSC) for over 13 years and working with prominent conservatives including Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) and Chip Roy (R-TX-21).

After working with the RSC, Teller went on to become Deputy Chief of Staff for Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and later Chief of Staff during Cruz’s 2016 presidential run.

Teller said working for Cruz was “fantastic,” noting how the Texas senator is “principled,” so he always knew “exactly where he stands” on issues.

“I can’t imagine working for a member who you have to guess where does he or she stand on X, Y, or Z,” Teller added. “In the Cruz office, we were active and dynamic and just pushing out stuff all the time,” Teller explained on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

After Cruz exited the 2016 presidential race, Teller said he spent some time building an advocacy group initially meant to keep Cruz’s movement alive for a potential 2020 run under the assumption Hillary Clinton would win in 2016.

When Trump won the race, Teller said his work to build such a group for Cruz ended, which prompted him to reach out to the Trump campaign for potential opportunities to serve within the administration.

“[The Trump administration] was taking people from every campaign possible – Rubio folks, Huckabee folks, Ted Cruz folks, and on down the line – so they were great that way,” Teller said.

Working as a conservative liaison in the White House, Teller said he spent some time with Trump who he noted has a sense of humor and is keen on listening to “multiple voices in the room.”

“He’s very funny. He loves listening to different people’s opinions.…The media would never report this, but if there were multiple voices in the room, he wants to hear what each one says. It was really interesting,” Teller said.

Now, as executive vice president of Advancing American Freedom, Teller said he is advocating for Congress to renew the Trump tax cuts and pair such tax relief with spending cuts to reduce the national debt.

“How do we extend and even expand the Trump tax cuts, because many parts of them are going away. Don’t listen to the media when they say, ‘Oh, it’s just for the rich people that’ll get tax cuts.’ No. Everybody’s taxes will go up if these taxes expire…Second thing is pairing tax relief with spending cuts,” Teller explained.

“With Republican control, you would think it would be easier, but they don’t have a long history of cutting spending. So we’ll see,” Teller said.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.