Amish voter project guides with Amish PAC’s plain voter project in 2022? Getting out the Amish vote takes time. They have not historically been civically engaged to the same extent as most non-Amish. But their views are slowly beginning to change. And it is our hope that 2022 will be a record-setting year for Amish voter registration and turnout! Amish PAC is the first PAC dedicated to registering and turning out Amish voters. The purpose of Amish PAC’s Plain Voter Project is to register Amish voters in the key swing states of Ohio & Pennsylvania. We reach and register new Amish voters by using advertising. Discover more details on AmishPAC.
Only about 7% of Amish people vote. Traditionally, men and women in the tradition avoid politics, including voting in elections. However, for those that do vote, their Christian convictions tend to drive their participation in the democratic process. As of 2020, 31 U.S. states have significant Amish populations, with an estimated number of 344,670 Amish residents. Pennsylvania has the largest population of Amish people in the U.S., at approximately 81,500. Ohio is a close second at 78,200. Indiana is third at 59,305.
A middle-aged Amish couple said they were aware of the PAC’s efforts but voted based on the issues. Both were proud they had voted since 2000 and had no plans to stop. The husband said he was a supporter of Second Amendment rights and did not believe Clinton would serve gun owners as president. He said Trump had failures as a businessman, shaky morals and multiple marriages but would be a good leader. The man’s wife echoed the same sentiment, adding that she didn’t think a woman was fit to be president. Both said a woman wouldn’t be good under pressure, with the husband noting that though Germany and Britain have had women leaders, those countries have much smaller populations and are therefore easier to oversee than the U.S.
The Amish PAC focused on advertising in areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania with large Amish and Mennonite populations. “I think we really got the word out and we really stirred up some buzz in Amish communities in Holmes County, Ohio, as well. We really had a great presence,” said Walters in a phone interview Friday. According to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, the Amish PAC spent $1,351 on advertising in the Holmes County Shopper and an additional $1,298 for The Budget. Both newspapers are geared toward the Amish and Mennonite communities in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Of the Amish voters who spoke to PennLive on Tuesday, nearly all said they voted for Trump, with a handful declining to address which candidate they supported. The overwhelming tenor of the Amish remarks on the election were that Trump was a flawed candidate but a better representative of the issues that matter to them. Because the Amish rarely grant interviews, PennLive is respecting the voters’ wishes not to be identified. One Amish voter, a man in his 30s, said it was the first time he had voted since 2008. He said he was unhappy with the political process but will continue to vote and voice his opinions.
The Amish and Mennonites are believed to be Republican voters because their beliefs align most closely with the policies of the Republican party, according to one Mennonite farmer in Rainsboro, Ohio, who said he does not vote. “I would probably vote Republican if I did vote because of the values of the times,” said the Rainsboro farmer in an interview this summer, who preferred not to be named in the newspaper. The Republican’s Amish PAC Plain Voters Project’s purpose was “to beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by turning out a deeply conservative and often forgotten block of voters” and was “specifically tailored to potential Amish and Mennonite voters,” according to the Amish PAC website. Discover more details at Amish vote registering advices.
The Amish are more likely to vote for individual and religious rights rather than government policies if they choose to vote at all. To appeal to this concern, people started the AmishPAC. This committee exists to encourage more electoral participation from the Amish people by improving Amish voter registration and turnout during elections. The creation of this political action committee solely to reach out to the Amish people shows the importance of their votes to politicians.
