Paul Teller

Teller was involved in controversy during the 2011 U.S. debt ceiling crisis when, in July 2011, he and his subordinates reportedly emailed several conservative groups to urge the groups to lobby against a plan put forward by Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio.[10][11] After the emails were discussed at a Republican conference meeting on July 27, 2011, which Teller attended, members of the conference chanted, "Fire him, fire him".[10] Anonymous Republican staff members criticized Teller for what they described as his "aggressive language and willingness to attack Republicans," while another anonymous senior GOP aide argued that "coordinating on message and revving up conservative activists is not, in and of itself, a bad thing."[11] While it was reported that members chanted "fire him, fire him" to Paul Teller during the closed door meeting, reports later came out showing the situation was embellished and exaggerated by the media, while others claimed it never had happened at all.

On December 11, 2013, it was reported that Teller had been fired by RSC Chairman Steve Scalise of Louisiana for undermining Scalise and others because Teller believed they were not acting with ideological purity; angering some conservative leaders.[12][13] [14]

In early 2014, Senator Ted Cruz hired Paul Teller to be his deputy chief of staff.[15] On September 10, 2014, Cruz announced that Teller would succeed Chip Roy of Texas, who was stepping down as chief of staff to become senior advisor for Cruz's political operations.[16]