No matter which poll you look at, almost all of them show that the race for the White House is statistically dead. Both sides have held election campaigns and events. Both Trump and Harris have spent a lot of time in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania. The Harris campaign focused on black and Hispanic voters, union members and women. But Donald Trump might have one often overlooked and mostly still part the electorate on his side. There may not be enough votes to win an election, but if the polls are right and the race is razor-thin, many votes may not be needed.
You know it’s grave when the Amish get involved.❤️🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/5PBTD6s4dF
– azure 🇺🇸 (@azury1455181) November 5, 2024
The Amish and Mennonite communities in rural Pennsylvania are probably the epitome of prospective conservative Republican voters. They are people who live uncomplicated lives and focus on their devout faith and families. Part of this belief involves humility, and that is why they do not engage in much of newfangled society. Traditionally they are not a voting population either, but in 2024 that could change.
The Amish population in Pennsylvania is approximately 92,000, making it the largest in the country. In 2004, George W. Bush campaigned in Amish country The vote among this population was at about 13 percent. Since then the number has fallen significantly to just seven to eight percent. But the Amish community and Amish voters are now somewhat represented in Congress. Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) is the first Amish-born congressman. Be The district includes Lancaster County, where the majority of the Amish population lives. He says he sees a changeand knows one of the main reasons for this:
“There is a minority of Amish people who farm now. They ran out of land in Lancaster County a long time ago. So there’s a new generation of Amish who are business owners.”
MY HEART SINGS! @NFormicaGOP I just learned that one in five voters we registered today are Amish.
There are 80,000 Amish in Pennsylvania – they have the power to literally save America.
We are canvassing the Amish vote. pic.twitter.com/P2ksM8E1PP
– ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) February 9, 2024
Smucker said 1,500 to 2,000 recent voters have been registered in his district and he expects many more voters will cast their ballots. Scott Presler and his conservative PAC Early Vote Action are instrumental in getting the Amish community to vote. With a group of staff and volunteers, Presler and his team have used public records to find Amish homes and knocked on doors the old-fashioned way by asking Amish residents if they were eligible to vote or if they had children who were about to turn 18. Presler described his approach as more than just offering rides to polling stations to potential Amish voters.
“I go in and respectfully challenge them and say, ‘Why aren’t you voting?’ That’s actually very ironic because Republicans are kind of against mail-in voting. But the Amish like mail-in voting because it’s secret and private, right? That’s why they love the idea of having a secret ballot sent to them that they then just send in the mail and no one in their city has to know that they voted. The Amish elder doesn’t know how they voted. Nobody has to know.”
Even though Donald Trump is someone whose lifestyle is the exact opposite of theirs, Amish voters are obviously pro-life and how Trump’s focus on Religious Freedom and Positions in Small Government. For many in the Amish community, this is top of mind Plight of farmer Amos Miller. After years of disputes with the state over the sale of raw dairy products, the state Department of Agriculture issued a search warrant for Miller’s property earlier this year, barring him from selling the products.
Will Donald Trump’s support from the Amish community support him in Pennsylvania? Possibly. Early Vote Action regional representative Tricia Aulbach says she personally registered nearly 200 people. If all Early Vote Actions staff and volunteers approach that number, the Amish in Pennsylvania could have significant influence and potentially be Trump’s secret weapon.
Amish voters are motivated! pic.twitter.com/VFbhuMx21T
— DukeWanders (@duke_prez) November 4, 2024
