Detroit pastor’s paid consulting ties surface amid endorsement of Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed

Financial disclosures show that Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate campaign transferred $75,000 to the Ecumenical Ministers Alliance, a nonprofit established by Detroit pastor Horace Sheffield III, labeling the funds as political consulting. Sheffield, who runs a show on FaithTalk 101.5 FM, repeatedly lauded El-Sayed on air and on social media, urging supporters to make phone calls, yet he did not disclose the consulting payments.

This is not Sheffield’s first such arrangement; he was previously suspended after endorsing Shri Thanedar without revealing that Thanedar’s campaign had also paid his nonprofit. Salem Media, the owner of the station, maintains that Sheffield is not an employee and that the endorsement does not reflect the company’s views. The episode echoes earlier controversies involving campaign payments to nonprofit leaders, such as the reported $500,000 paid by Kamala Harris’s campaign to Al Sharpton’s organization. Neither El-Sayed’s team nor Sheffield provided a response to inquiries about the payments.