(The Center Square) – The Amish vote received significant attention throughout the 2024 election cycle as Republican activists worked to mobilize the traditionally low-turnout group.
As the frenzy settles, curiosity about its impact continues.
The hyper-focus was fueled by extensive communities in battleground states, most of all Pennsylvania. It was also an opportunity to bring the historically politically adverse and traditionalist culture under the Grand Old Party’s umbrella.
Some Amish refrain from voting due to beliefs emphasizing separation from “worldly” influences, though a desire for religious freedom and protection from government overreach has drawn more to the polls in recent years.
Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Balderson, whose district encompasses the largest Amish settlement in Ohio’s Holmes County, told The Center Square that the community doesn’t see things all that differently.
“The Amish community wants the same things most Americans want: lower prices, fewer heavy-handed government mandates, and policies guided by common sense – not woke ideologies,” he said. “It’s that simple.”
As previously reported by The Center Square, it’s difficult to estimate how many members of the Amish community vote. Nearly 400,000 exist nationwide across 654 individual settlements.
The largest populations are recorded in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin, according to the Young Center for Amish Studies.
In swing states like Pennsylvania, home to the largest Amish population in the country, its 92,000 members could make all the difference in expanding the narrow margins separating President-elect Donald Trump and his Democratic challengers during the last three election cycles.
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., whose district includes Amish stronghold Lancaster County, had predicted a dramatic increase in voter turnout based on enthusiasm ahead of the election in an interview with The Associated Press.
This claim was contradicted by Steven Nolt, director of the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, who told Anabaptist World that the number of counties, including larger ones, had shifted more Republican, resulting in a more considerable contribution than solely Lancaster County alone.
Politifact reported said claims of nearly 180,000 Amish registered voters were far-fetched.
Though data on Amish voter turnout in the 2024 election isn’t fully available yet, Republican organizers used creative outreach methods this year, such as in-person engagement at local fairs, billboards, ads and mail-in ballot education.
“Their strategy reveals new developments in voter registration outreach, including face-to-face interactions at markets and homes, paired with carefully placed visual messaging. Billboards along plain people’s familiar routes in Lancaster County,” said Postdoctoral scholar Cory Anderson in his recent article.
Anderson said the attempt to connect thinking familiar to the community with political action, such as coupling references to “hard work” with calls to “Pray For God’s Mercy For Our Nation” was complete with stylized imagery.
Anderson’s article points to a sampling of Amish perspectives, including those of vegetable farmers, dairy farmers, horseradish makers, business owners, and wives, noting the male-skewedness that follows established gender roles.
That said, he cautions against generalizing the population using a quote from Barbie Stoltzfus, an Amish woman.
“Where do 37,000 people all think alike?” she said.
By Shirleen Guerra | The Center Square
