When Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr., pastor of Triumph Church, announced on Feb. 19 that he was running for mayor, he joined a notable list of Detroit pastors who’ve had political aspirations.
Rev. Nicholas Hood Sr. and Rev. Dr. John W. Peoples both held seats on the Detroit City Council, with Hood Sr. serving from 1965-1993 and Peoples serving from 1982-1991. Hood Sr.’s son, Rev. Nicholas Hood III, followed in his father’s footsteps by going into ministry and politics, serving on City Council from 1993 to 2001.
Keith Butler, the rockstar pastor of Word of Faith International Christian Center, was also a Detroit City councilman from 1990-1995 and unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2006.
However, in a city where other notable pastors like Bishop Charles Ellis III and Marvin Winans are treated like celebrities and carry hefty amounts of influence and cultural equity, none have been successful as mayoral candidates.
Hood III didn’t make it out of the primaries in 2001 or in 2009’s special election to fill the remainder of the term after former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick resigned. After much speculation, Butler decided not to run in 1993. At the time, the Word of Faith had over 8,000 members, and the fact that he didn’t run has created a big “what if” that Khary Frazier, the founder of online magazine Detroit is Different, has heard discussed in political circles.
“I do think when Keith Butler was thinking about running, things were so different. You can tie one into the same as far as what Word of Faith developed into, the congregation, and what it represented and the movement that it created,” says Frazier. “But it’s totally different messaging. I think Pastor Kinchloh is way more entrenched inside the community and engaging in the community. Opening the Triumph doors for different events and wanting to partner with community leaders are things we just haven’t seen.”
Kinloch’s Triumph Church is structured like a small franchise business. There are two campuses in Detroit and a total of seven campuses, which have a weekly attendance of more than 10,000 people. Frazier questions how many of Triumph’s members are Detroit residents; however, they are still a very important asset as Kinloch seeks to be the first pastor to become mayor of Detroit.
Karen Dumas, a communications strategist who has worked as a chief communications officer under former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and director of community relations for former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, said the size of the flock makes a difference.
“A big following is impressive and provides visibility. Those people become your conversation and third-party validators,” says Dumas.
“The thing that Solomon has that gives him a chance is based on his actual structure; he runs his ministry in a way that fights for space in the attention economy,” added political consultant Eric Foster.
The Black church in Detroit
Kinloch’s candidacy comes at a time when people have been questioning the effectiveness and importance of the Black church. A 2021 Gallup study showed that Black church membership had dropped among Black adults by almost 20% over the last two decades.
The Black church has been an essential part of Detroit’s Black culture since the early days of the Great Migration. Back then, information was hard to obtain, and the Black church guided newly arrived Black southerners to housing, employment and government services.
As the years went by, Black churches multiplied by the hundreds and started to play a crucial role in Detroit politics. The larger the congregation, the more attractive it was during election season. Relationships with prominent pastors were valued, and an endorsement from the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity was highly coveted.
“There was a time back when we had a smaller influx of communication, activity, and tools. Where the endorsement was enough to carry and move the voting consumer. But because we have so much influx of information now, the voting consumer has a lot of competing things for their time,” said Foster.
A church is a business too, says Dumas.
“They may say they’re in the business of saving souls, but there’s an economic benefit for the leader of a church and a church as an entity from a business standpoint,” she said. “I think people see that for what it is as well.”
Separation of church and state?
Another reason pastors haven’t been able to win Detroit’s highest office may be because residents are unwilling to combine clergy with city government. The current shift in religious preferences and practices may impact this in this year’s election. According to a Pew Religious Landscape Study, 61% of Michigan residents identified as Christian in 2024, which is down from 70% in 2014. But Kinloch cites that Detroit has historically embraced politics and religion simultaneously and sees his campaign for mayor as an extension of that.
“Like many people who grew up in the city of Detroit, we’ve always seen the pulpit in partnership with politics,” Kinloch said in a May 1 interview with the Michigan Chronicle. “We’ve always had pastors who sat in full-time municipal positions on city council and as appointees, but at the same time, those individuals also pastored meaningful and large congregations.”
His campaign said Kinloch “isn’t bringing church policy to the (mayor’s) office.”
Kinloch has already said he does not personally agree with Triumph Church’s policy against performing same-sex marriages and said it was a board decision he was not a part of.
“Love is love. I would never tell anyone who they should love, or who they can marry,” Kinloch said earlier this month in a statement to BridgeDetroit. “I will be a mayor for all Detroiters, whether gay or straight, Black or white, young or old. Everyone has the right to exercise their freedom to find happiness. As mayor, I would defend the rights of all Detroiters and fight vigorously against injustice toward our LGBTQ community.”
Kimberly Hanserd, a Detroit resident who plans on voting in Detroit’s mayoral election, believes a pastor can govern a city as long as they lean on the laws and legislation in place in order to avoid conflicting decision making.
However, she thinks it’s unrealistic that Kinloch can manage both his church and the city of Detroit simultaneously.
“If something big happened and the church needed him, he’s going to respond,” she says. “He’s a fantastic community person but I don’t know if he will have his finger on the pulse of the city in the same way. I think a person needs to be wholly engaged in that job solely, so that might be an issue.”
When asked midway through the mayoral debate held on June 16 how he would be both an effective pastor and mayor, Kinloch, Jr. closed out his answer by asking, “What’s wrong with a mayor that has a Christian conscience?”
That’s a question Detroiters will answer on Election Day.