Here's the thing. When a radio pastor closes a segment with 'Lord, help this man win,' listeners probably assume he means it for free.
Campaign finance records tell a different story. Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan Senate campaign made 10 payments of $7,500 each — totaling $75,000 — to Ecumenical Ministers Alliance between October 21 and June 1, listed as 'political consulting.' The nonprofit was incorporated in 2010 by Pastor Horace Sheffield III and is registered to his home address.
Sheffield is the pastor of New Destiny Christian Fellowship and hosts 'The Wake-Up Call' on FaithTalk 101.5 FM. During a December 6 appearance on his own show, he endorsed El-Sayed and pledged to put his 'full force of soldiers' behind him. In a June 20 video filmed at El-Sayed's campaign headquarters, Sheffield said he expected El-Sayed to beat Rep. Haley Stevens in the August 4 Democratic primary. The nonprofit itself formally endorsed El-Sayed last month. None of those public endorsements included disclosure of the payments.
El-Sayed called the nonprofit endorsement a 'deep honor' and featured it on his campaign website. In last week's interview with Sheffield, El-Sayed said, 'You can't buy authenticity.' The changelog disagrees.
This is not Sheffield's first rodeo. In 2018, he was suspended from WFDF after endorsing gubernatorial candidate Shri Thanedar while Thanedar's campaign was simultaneously paying his nonprofit tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work. WFDF owner John Adell cited FCC equal-time rules. Sheffield said afterward, 'I won't be involved in any more campaigns.' Records from that same year show three other Michigan candidates — Kevin Robbins, Tracy Green, and Terra Defoe — each paid the nonprofit $750 listed as 'endorsement fees.'
Salem Media, which owns FaithTalk 101.5 FM, distanced itself quickly. A spokeswoman said: 'We completely reject the endorsement of Abdul El-Sayed made during this paid programming. Pastor Horace Sheffield is not a Salem Media employee and has no affiliation with Salem Media other than purchasing airtime for his independently produced program.'
Sheffield serves as president of the Michigan chapter of the National Action Network and has described Al Sharpton as a longtime friend. In 2024, the Free Beacon reported that Kamala Harris's campaign paid $500,000 to Sharpton's National Action Network shortly before Harris appeared on his MSNBC program. Sheffield is also the father of Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield.
Current polling shows Stevens leading El-Sayed by 46 points among Black voters in Michigan — the very constituency Sheffield claimed to be mobilizing.
Voltage take: The pattern here is straightforward: undisclosed payments flow to a media figure, undisclosed endorsements flow back, and listeners are left making decisions on information that was never clean to begin with. El-Sayed campaigned loudly against corporate PAC money. That's a fine argument. It lands differently when your own campaign finance records show $75,000 moving toward the radio host calling your opponent invisible. Free markets run on disclosed prices. So should democratic primaries.
