‘Pay to Pray’? El-Sayed Allegedly Paid Black Pastor $75K Before Endorsement

Horace Sheffield III, a prominent Detroit-based pastor and radio host who said he would put “his full force” behind Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, received $75,000 from the candidate’s campaign beforehand, a Washington Free Beacon review of finance records found.

Ecumenical Ministers Alliance, the pastor’s nonprofit that Sheffield incorporated in 2010, did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment about the 10 different $7,500 payments from Oct. 21 to June 1 for “political consulting” from El-Sayed’s campaign.

In July, the Ecumenical Ministers Alliance, which is registered to Sheffield’s home address, endorsed El-Sayed, who then said he is “deeply honored” to have Sheffield’s support and lists the endorsement on his campaign website.

Sheffield himself first endorsed El-Sayed on his show “The Wake-Up Call,” nearly two weeks after he first began to receive payments from El-Sayed’s campaign.

On his show, Sheffield, the father of Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield, then applauded El-Sayed, echoing the Democrat’s campaign talking points on corporate PAC money and “Medicare for All.”

Sheffield also urged supporters to vote for El-Sayed and even took shots at El-Sayed’s opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens, for never having “been seen” in Detroit.

“Lord, help this man win,” said Sheffield, to which El-Sayed responded, “You can’t buy authenticity.”

On his own radio show last week, the New Destiny Christian Fellowship pastor urged listeners to make “five and 10 phone calls” on behalf of El-Sayed’s campaign, marking the third time he has boosted the candidate on air since he began receiving payments, the Free Beacon noted, without addressing the financial relationship with the campaign.

New Destiny Christian Fellowship did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

If true, this would not be the first time Sheffield has been caught in a scandal involving cash and a political endorsement.

The Detroit Free Press noted that in 2018, Sheffield was suspended from WFDF, his radio station at the time, after he endorsed gubernatorial candidate Shri Thanedar during a radio interview without disclosing that Thanedar had paid tens of thousands of dollars to Sheffield’s nonprofit.

“I’ve got [a Federal Communications Commission] license that I have to worry about. You have to offer equal time to every candidate,” WFDF owner John Adell told the outlet at the time.

The pastor’s endorsement is crucial to the current Senate campaign, since El-Sayed badly trails Stevens in garnering support from black voters, polls show.

For instance, the largest teachers union in the state conducted a poll in late July that showed that Stevens earns 20% more support than El-Sayed from respondents who identify as black men in a November matchup against Republican Rep. Mike Rogers.

The same poll noted that Stevens could count on 13% more support from black women with no college degree, and almost 30% more from black women with a college degree.

Last week, the Rev. Wendell Anthony, a Detroit pastor who has led the Detroit NAACP for decades, asked El-Sayed at a campaign event whether he would be “more concerned about the West Bank than the West Side of Detroit?”

Anthony endorsed Stevens, and added that many are concerned about El-Sayed’s support for the “uncommitted” movement in 2024.

In the 2024 presidential race, where President Donald Trump won the state by a small margin, Democrat voters representing the uncommitted movement refused to canvas for former Vice President Kamala Harris due to the Biden administration’s stance on Israel.

“Vice President Harris’s unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her,” the uncommitted movement said at the time.

Another black voter at the event, 63-year-old Army veteran Richard Nix, referenced television advertisements portraying El-Sayed as disparaging toward women to CNN, highlighting El-Sayed’s past criticism of former first lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity initiative.

“I’m a big pro-Obama person, and you’re dogging his wife,” Nix stated. He told El-Sayed he wanted to know “what the h— is going on.”

Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Pedro Rodriguez.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.