Opinion

HOLLAND — Give Abdul El-Sayed this much: The man can work a room, and lately the room has had pews in it.

The Democratic U.S. Senate nominee has turned Sunday mornings into a campaign tour, with more than 45 visits to Black churches by his campaign's count. He sits in the pew and gets the photo. What he doesn't bring are the values those pulpits preach, and in my opinion his own record gives Christian voters little reason to believe he'd stand by them in Washington. He's a skilled campaigner. That's not the same thing as a man who'll keep his word to the people whose churches he's borrowing.

The church circuit

He launched his campaign at King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit in May 2025. Since then his posts have stopped at New St Paul Tabernacle COGIC, Hartford Memorial Baptist, "Sunday church in Saginaw" and Souls to the Polls in Detroit. His campaign put the strategy in writing on its page for the final weekend:

"Black churches have long led the way in turning faith into civic power … We're honoring that legacy by bringing the same spirit to our mosques, and we're also joining Black churches across Detroit this Sunday, November 1, for Souls to the Polls in their communities."

Black pastors owe nobody an apology for opening their doors. The question is for the guest.

He even knows the routine is a routine. In a clip he posted in March, he joked that a lady once scolded him in church for "saying the same stuff." His punch line: "I'm gonna get some new talking points when we get some new problems."

Not one iglesia

I checked his posts and all 1,001 events on his campaign's Mobilize page since January 2025. Not one Hispanic congregation. No iglesia, no Spanish Mass, no Hispanic pastor's pulpit.

Latino voters got restaurants, a coalition meet-and-greet and, right here in Holland on Oct. 25, a live interview on stage. That's the same Sunday he posted about church in Saginaw. He told the Holland crowd, in a video organizer Antonio Altamirano posted:

"Any faith that is about what you don't do and less about what you do do, you're missing the point."

Most of the Ten Commandments are about what you don't do. Just saying.

What he says when the pews are empty

El-Sayed is Muslim, and that's his business. This column is about what he says once the service lets out.

In a nationally televised interview, he said, "What tends to happen if we ban abortion is people just get abortions. They're just less safe." He listed "the right to choose" among "things we all agree on." On parents who want a say in "what is taught in school," he said, "I think we manufacture these social issues," and called parents' instinct to shield kids "so profoundly outdated." On transgender athletes: "I'm not running to govern sports." He's running for the body that wrote Title IX.

Asked whether secular liberalism gets anything wrong, he said, "No." And: "nobody gets to read their faith into the law to the exclusion of anybody else."

Bring your faith to the photo op. Leave it at the door of the voting booth.

Promises with an expiration date

If his promises bend this easily on issues he cares about, why trust him on values he doesn't share?

Line 5. In a 2018 campaign video, he promised: "We've got to stand up and shut it down. I mean, full shutdown. No tunnel around it … I intend to do that within my first 100 days." Last year, campaigning in the Upper Peninsula, it was: "If you're going to build a tunnel around Line 5, I think it's better than not having one."

Medicare for All. He bills himself as "the only candidate in this race fighting for Medicare for All." Then, in a clip he posted in January, he told viewers, "If you like your insurance from your employer or from your union, that can still be there for you." The Medicare for All Act makes it unlawful for insurers to sell, or employers to provide, coverage that duplicates its benefits. Primary rival Mallory McMorrow called him out for "rewriting definitions to have it both ways."

That's a campaigner's gift: Say what the room wants. Shutdown in 2018, tunnel in the U.P. A pew on Sunday, "manufactured" on Monday.

Exhibit A

Look at the clergy rallying the faithful for him.

The Rev. Bryan Berghoef is pastor and founder of Holland United Church of Christ. He was the 2020 Democratic nominee against U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, and he lost by about 21 points. His congregation describes itself as "an LGBTQ open and affirming congregation." His denomination's national synod passed a resolution "Proclaiming Abortion as Healthcare."

In his public Facebook post tagged with El-Sayed, Berghoef wrote:

"I was happy to vote for a vision of America where healthcare is available for every person who needs it, where we invest in our own communities instead of bombing other ones … I voted because I want a country where we know that we must pass restrictions on AI, where we care about the health of the planet … For all those reasons and more, I proudly voted for Abdul for Senate."

He's entitled to his vote, and he's honest about why. But read the whole post: AI, the planet, the border, Iran and "a self-aggrandizing, hapless President." There's no Scripture and no unborn child. It's a party platform with "Rev." in front of it.

In Grand Rapids, El-Sayed touted the endorsement of the Rev. Nathan Dannison. Dannison is senior minister of Fountain Street Church, which calls itself "progressive, non-denominational, multi-faith." The church's own leadership page calls him "a universalist preacher" and says he sits "on the Board of Directors for Planned Parenthood of Michigan."

That's not Christian orthodoxy endorsing El-Sayed. That's progressive politics in a clerical collar.

The ask

"When MAGA points to someone's name or their faith, they're trying to distract you so they can pick your pocket," El-Sayed posted Monday.

Nobody here is pointing at his faith. He's the one pointing at churches, and skipping every Hispanic one. Christian voters don't need a senator who shares their church. They need one who won't treat their convictions as "manufactured" and their pews as a backdrop. Judging by his record, I don't think that's El-Sayed. Believe him when he tells you where he stands.

How to vote

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. Also on the Senate ballot are Libertarian Lydia Christensen, U.S. Taxpayers candidate Tim Long, Green Party candidate Douglas P. Marsh and Natural Law candidate Walter P. Kristy. Ottawa County voters with questions can contact the Ottawa County Elections Division at 12220 Fillmore St., Room 130, West Olive, or (616) 994-4535.

Eric McKee is the publisher of Hollander.news. This is an opinion column.