Mail-in voting may lead Amish to become deciding force in the 2024 election: GOP activist
A get-out-the-vote strategist is suggesting that Amish voters could influence the 2024 presidential election, saying they “could literally save western civilization in November.”
Scott Pressler, who leads the political action committee Early Vote Action, which aims to “elect Republicans by mobilizing a nationwide grassroots effort for voter registration and increasing absentee and early voting,” posted on X (formerly Twitter) Saturday, urging former President Donald Trump to reach out to Amish voters in Pennsylvania.
“I spoke to an Amish man last night that really wants you to come to Lancaster, PA. He said more Amish people would be able to attend your rally if it’s on a Saturday,” Pressler wrote. “He also suggested to advertise in the local newspaper, so the Amish will be able to read about it,” Pressler added, making his pitch to the Republican presidential nominee. “By doing a rally in Lancaster — connecting with the Amish — you could very well win Pennsylvania.”
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In the X post, Pressler included a picture of an Amish woman carrying a Trump/Vance campaign sign. He pointed out that “Pennsylvania was decided by 80,000 votes” in the 2020 presidential election and noted, “There are 90,000 Amish in Pennsylvania.”
“If President Trump connects with the Amish, this group could literally save America,” Pressler predicted. His analysis assumes the Amish did not vote in significant numbers in 2020, and if they had, their votes would have been overwhelmingly Republican, potentially giving Trump enough support to surpass President Joe Biden's margin of victory in the state.
Pressler elaborated on the potential significance of the Amish vote during an appearance at Turning Point USA's “The People’s Convention” earlier this year, a clip of which he shared on X Saturday. In his remarks, Pressler explained how the Amish vote could also play a crucial role in another swing state: Wisconsin.
“There are 20,000 Amish in Wisconsin and Joe Biden won Wisconsin by 20,000 votes,” Pressler wrote. “The Amish, if they are mobilized, could literally save western civilization.”
Pressler also pointed to the religious practices of the Amish as an example of why Republicans should embrace early voting and absentee voting, despite their previous skepticism. “The Amish, they get married on Tuesdays in November,” he said. “What happens on Tuesdays in November?”
He went on to describe his conversations with Amish voters: “When I go to the Amish and tell them that they can have a private, secret ballot sent to their homes, and they don’t have to drive their buggy to a polling location and face that stigma from their community, they love the idea of mail-in ballots.” Pressler asked, “How epic would it be if a tool of the Democrats was used to get out the Amish vote and elect Donald J. Trump?” referring to the Democrats' widespread use of mail-in voting.
Data compiled by the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College shows that Pennsylvania has an Amish population of 92,660 as of 2024. Meanwhile, Wisconsin has an Amish population of 26,365. Biden won the former state by 81,660 votes and prevailed in the latter by a margin of 20,682 votes.
Additional statistics from the Young Center, obtained by The Christian Post, show that Amish voter participation in presidential elections varies by region. In select Wisconsin counties, where the number of eligible Amish voters hovered around 3,000 in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, less than 1% of eligible Amish voters were registered.
However, 100% of the registered Amish voters in those areas cast their ballots. Similarly, in the swing state of Michigan, around 2,500 Amish were eligible to vote in the two most recent presidential elections. About 6% of those eligible Amish voters were registered in both 2016 and 2020, though turnout data is not available.
In Pennsylvania, Amish voters in Lawrence and Mercer counties had much higher registration rates, with 65.09% registered in 2016 and 54.37% in 2020. However, only 16.07% of registered voters cast ballots in 2016, a number that jumped to 66.85% in 2020.
In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 13.7% of eligible Amish voters were registered to vote in 2016, and that number increased to 24.37% in 2020. The Amish voter turnout in the county was 49.42% in 2016 and 71.27% in 2020.
The Young Center also found that more than 90% of Amish voters in every location are registered as Republicans. The Republican registration rate ranged from approximately 90% in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 2016 to as high as 99.57% in Holmes County, Ohio, during the same year.
Polling for the 2024 presidential election in swing states with sizable Amish populations indicates a close race.
In Wisconsin, the RealClearPolitics average of polls taken since Sept. 4 shows Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, beating Trump by 0.9 percentage points. Harris has a lead of 1.8 percentage points in Michigan, based on polls taken since Aug. 28. Based on polls taken since Sept. 11, Harris leads Trump by 0.9 percentage points in Pennsylvania.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
