Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. believes his path from childhood poverty to leading a Michigan megachurch gives him the perspective and experience needed to lead Detroit.
The Nov. 4 general election is a few short days away, where voters will choose the first new mayor since 2014. City Council President Mary Sheffield and Kinloch are making their final case to voters. Sheffield argues she’s a proven leader who is ready to take Detroit into its next chapter. Kinloch argues poverty and violent crime remained too high under her watch and Sheffield didn’t focus resources on those problems.
BridgeDetroit launched a new platform this year in collaboration with Detroit Is Different to hold in-depth conversations with candidates for mayor and City Council. Kinloch joined us on Oct. 23 for an interview focused on his goals and how his experience running Triumph Church could translate to leading Detroit. Our interview with Sheffield is available here.
Here’s what we learned from the latest conversation with Kinloch.
1. Good things are happening, but not fast enough
Throughout the campaign Kinloch has discussed Detroit as a “tale of two cities” where a flourishing downtown was built at the expense of neglected neighborhoods. He’s walked a tricky line of saying progress has been made during Mayor Mike Duggan’s tenure, just not enough.
“We are not suggesting that good things have not happened in the city of Detroit,” Kinloch said. “Although we’ve come a long way, we’ve made tremendous progress, but that progress has to be more inclusive so that people in the inner city can feel the renaissance and the revitalization that we say is taking place.”
Kinloch pointed to the 51% child poverty rate, as recorded in 2024 by the U.S. Census Bureau. He said families are struggling with affordable housing while city leaders celebrate milestones.
“I feel like the city is at a crossroad, a critical crossroad,” Kinloch said. “Have we gotten better in some areas? Yes. We were in bankruptcy, we had financial oversight, and I believe that we’ve come far financially. Have we seen sections of the city that have done well? Yes. My point, and what the citizens are saying, is that it’s not been inclusive enough.”
2. Kinloch questions violent crime stats
Kinloch has repeatedly questioned the accuracy of Detroit Police Department data that shows declines in violent and nonviolent crimes but hasn’t provided evidence when pressed by reporters.
He took it a step further by claiming “violent crime is at an all-time high” despite the city having the lowest number of homicides since 1965, and showing declines in other incidents like assaults, robberies and carjackings. Kinloch made a similar claim during a debate with Sheffield.
Kinloch cited reporting showing a 33% increase in juvenile victims of gun violence, but DPD data shows homicides are down 21%, all violent crime is down 7% and property crimes are down by 11% compared to last year. Homicides reported in 2024 were the lowest in decades, part of a national trend of declining violence.
When asked how his claim squares with the data, Kinloch said there needs to be more scrutiny of what’s being reported.
“Before we start grading our own tests, we need to make sure that we get some objective evaluation,” Kinloch said. “Numbers in our city and across this country, particularly when you start talking about crime and violence, have always been scrutinized. That’s why Congress has congressional hearings to bring in objective experts, and they bring in residents from the community, because you need the people to attest that the measures that you’re taking are actually measuring up.”
Kinloch said the City Council should hold public safety hearings and invite residents who would share their experiences. He said increases in poverty can’t coexist with decreases in crime.
“I’m not saying the police department or the leadership is doing anything intentionally erroneous,” Kinloch said. “I don’t want to make it seem as though that the campaign and the election is making this a topic of discussion. If you talk to police officers who work on the force, who are out here in the streets every day, that’s a discussion and a debate that’s been going on long before right now.”
3. Kinloch says pandemic relief funding was poorly spent
Kinloch said Detroit failed to effectively use $827 million in pandemic relief funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to improve neighborhoods and fight poverty.
Kinloch said the funding was meant to eradicate poverty, yet poverty increased. The city’s poverty rate rose to 35% in 2024, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, up from 30% in 2021.
He said the city’s own data shows only 5% of the funding was spent on affordable housing and 5% was spent on neighborhoods. The city dashboard outlines 12 funding categories chosen by Duggan’s administration after a public input process and approved by the City Council in 2021. It shows $37 million was spent on programs in the neighborhoods category (4% of the total), plus $27 million on affordable housing (3% of the total) and $109 million for housing (13% of the total).
Duggan’s spending plan was authorized by the City Council without the support of Sheffield, who said at the time that residents didn’t feel there was enough meaningful outreach on their priorities. She later proposed shifting funding to build infill housing and provide home repair grants. The money is still being used. Detroit has until the end of 2026 to spend all of its ARPA dollars.
How would Kinoch allocate the money if he were mayor at the time? He said increasing the percentage of funding spent on housing, food access, workforce development and education is a start.
“We would have looked at ways in order to intentionally use that money to eradicate poverty,” Kinloch said. “We would have looked at long-term ways to rid the city of food scarcity, particularly the lack of access to nutrition. We would have been more intentional about how much money went into the neighborhoods.”
4. Kinloch says he’s had an impact on Detroit politics from the pulpit
During the debate, Sheffield claimed Kinloch has little experience working to improve Detroit, while the pastor said his church has been a hub of political activism for decades.
Kinloch explained in the interview that he’s hosted political candidates ranging from Duggan and former U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence to President Barack Obama and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. He said Triumph Church has also hosted political demonstrations and rallies regarding union rights, corporate pollution, property tax overassessment and other issues.
“Take for instance the COVID incident, we gave out almost 10,000 or more laptops,” Kinloch said. “At the end of the day, we had to raise a million dollars to do that, and we were buying groceries from Mike’s Fresh Market for $50,000 to $100,000 a week. Our contribution is based on the generosity of people.”
Kinloch said the church has invested “millions of dollars” in grocery, car and technology giveaways, rent support, and other charity work.
Kinloch said he’s also partnered with Sheffield’s father Horace Sheffield III, donating to his causes and supporting political actions that benefit residents.
As senior pastor of Triumph Church, Kinloch said he’s learned how to manage staff and grow a successful institution. He’s described himself as a CEO who dramatically expanded the congregation’s size and added new locations across southeast Michigan.
“If the church would have been in the same place today that it was 27 years ago when I got there with less than 100 people, and still in that building in Southwest Detroit. And it went down from less than 100 to 40 and 20 and 10, nobody would be saying, you know, you ready to move on to somewhere greater?
5. Kinloch says Star Theater allegations are overblown
Readers wanted to know why a limited liability company formed by Kinloch was given control of a former theater in Southfield after Triumph Church purchased it.
Kinloch said the church purchased the former AMC Star Southfield theater on a land contract with hopes of turning it into a new church and community space. Kinloch is the lone resident agent of Triumph Southfield Property LLC, which obtained control of the site through a property transfer in 2024.
Kinloch said that doesn’t mean that he solely owns the theater. Highland Park activist Robert Davis filed a lawsuit alleging the transfer was illegally done to enrich Kinloch, which the pastor called “a flat-out lie.”
“While we were entertaining what to do with it, because we were receiving development offers of partnership, we created a holding company for liability purposes,” Kinloch said. “We created a holding company that is wholly owned by the church. For someone to say, just because I’m the resident agent and I am the person that’s responsible for the state filings at the end of the day, it does not say Solomon Kinloch owns anything. I don’t singularly own anything.”
Kinloch said the church is entertaining “four or five development offers” at the site, but construction costs have risen dramatically since the pandemic.
“There’s no property of Triumph Church that belongs to me,” Kinloch said.
6. Kinloch says he’s faced unfair attacks. Would he work with Sheffield?
Kinloch said he’s faced “personal attacks” from Sheffield’s campaign but said he’s receptive to working with her if she becomes mayor.
Kinloch said he expects scrutiny as someone running for mayor, but claimed there hasn’t been “equal distribution” of criticism between himself and Sheffield.
“When you attack my wife, when you attack my son, when you attack my brother, when you attack my church, my ministry, my long history of using my platform to help people, those kinds of things mean that you are doing stuff that makes relationships ruptured,” Kinloch said. “But I follow the model of the founder of my faith, that I can forgive because I’ve been forgiven.”
I can’t believe he’s still lying as a pastor. He took out a $2.1 million loan on the Star Theatre as the sole owner as the property when Triumph Church Quit Claim Deed the property to him for $1. That payment of $2.1 million is due on November 15 and he missed the initial payment of $272,000 on September 2 and the water bill of the property of $33,000.00 as well. So there is properly a lien on the property. Sheffield or her campaign staff has never made any mention of him, his wife or his brother so again he’s fabricating all these lies. The Southwest Detroit location is being rented out to another church. The reason he’s not having services there because the in the church original bylaws it was stipulated that property could never be sold for 100 years and he got mad and abandoned that location and the elderly members who elected him as the pastor and changed the name from Triumph Missionary Baptist Church to Triumph Church. Furthermore, he received a PPP loan during the pandemic for $484,000 stating it was for 55 employees which he has claimed he never used government assistance. He could have surely used that money to at least paid the water bill that was outstanding. But the big question is what did he do with the $2.1 million that he borrowed and how does he plan on paying it back. I’ll tell how. The plan was if he’s elected mayor he was going to get an extension and rob the city to pay that loan off and to build he mega church that’s why he not going to resign as the pastor.
I a firm believer in separation
Of church and state. Never mind he has 0 experience. He should stick to what he knows the church
Not politics.