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Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. (Campaign photo)
Robert Davis is at it again.
The Highland Park activist has derailed campaigns in the past by challenging candidates on election technicalities—some of whom have been tossed from the ballot.
This time, he’s set his sights on Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr., one of the top-polling candidates in the Detroit mayoral race.
In an email shared with Deadline Detroit, Davis wrote Wednesday to the Michigan Secretary of State and the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, asking them to launch a criminal probe into Kinloch. Specifically, he alleges that Kinloch, who owns a home in Oakland Township, fraudulently registered to vote in Detroit at two addresses he never actually lived at in 2024. The city charter requires candidates to reside in Detroit for at least a year before filing to run for office.
“I mean, he’s basically a fraudulent candidate,” Davis told Deadline Detroit. He said he is not being paid by any candidate in the race.
Dan Lijana, a spokesman for Kinloch, outright dismissed suggestions that Kinloch hasn’t lived in the city or that he registered to vote improperly. He said Kinloch has done everything properly and above board.
Robert Davis
He also expressed dismay about the media giving the allegations any fuel.
“You now have members of the media participating in an Obama birther-level style campaign without any basis in fact, without checking any facts, based on speculation from someone who has made wild accusations in the past that have proven untrue. There are important issues all over this race that aren’t being covered. It’s an embarrassment.”
Kinloch moved into the city from Oakland Township in northern Oakland County in March 2024, according to voter records.
Davis’s email claims that Kinloch first moved to 305 Michigan Ave., Apt. #907, located in the Sonder Gabriel Richard Apartments Downtown, which are operated by Marriott Bonvoy and can be rented for a day, week, month or more. He then allegedly moved to 330 Gratiot Ave., Apt. 1501, a condo owned and occupied by his brother, Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch. In February of this year, he moved to an apartment next door to his brother’s, Davis's email says.
“It is believed Pastor Kinloch never ‘resided’ at the property located on Michigan Ave. or with his brother, Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch. Pastor Kinloch’s sudden moves are suspicious and questionable, especially considering Michigan laws that define residency," the email says.
The letter cites Michigan election law on residency, which defines it as the “place at which a person habitually sleeps, keeps his or her personal effects, and has a regular place of lodging… If a person has a residence separate from that of his or her spouse, that place at which the person resides the greater part of the time shall be his or her official residence for the purpose of this act.”
