These interviews reveal several striking patterns in how plain people engage—or don’t engage—with electoral politics. Continuing the gender theme from my last post, note the male-skewedness of political participation. Steven Stoltzfus’s observation that voting is “just boys” most times, combined with Barbie Stoltzfus’s description of her husband’s role in household voting decisions, suggests political engagement follows established gender roles. Linda and Lydia Fisher stand out as politically aware women, yet their perspectives are often couched within family dynamics—Lydia’s husband sharing their reservations about Trump’s character even as they both plan to vote. What is noteworthy, though, is that any Amish women are voting, suggesting some possible shift in attitudes.

A second pattern emerges around how plain people actively resist political categorization while simultaneously navigating it. Elmer Stoltzfus’s pointed rejection of being “put in a box” and his preference for identification as a “regular Christian voter” speaks to this tension. Barbie Stoltzfus’s challenge to monolithic portrayals—“Where do 37,000 people all think alike?”—further undermines attempts at easy categorization. Even those expressing clear voting intentions, like Sam Stoltzfus with his daily Fox News routine, demonstrate nuanced political thinking rather than wholesale adoption of party positions.

The interviews also reveal a striking spectrum of theological interpretation regarding political participation. While Daniel’s “My kingdom is not of this world” and Leroy Stoltzfus’s emphasis on God’s care (instead of political action) represent positions uncontroversial within their familiar theology, others find ways to reconcile participation with faith, echoing thinking common in other politically active Christian circles, such as evangelicalism. Some, like Barbie Stoltzfus, describe it through the lens of household spiritual leadership, while Elmer Stoltzfus frames voting as an extension of responsible Christian engagement.

Beyond these interview-derived insights, the broader news coverage illuminates additional dynamics worth noting. The evolution of Republican outreach strategy—particularly the embrace of mail-in voting as a solution to both practical and social barriers—represents a significant shift from previous election cycles. The Amos Miller raw milk case has emerged as a powerful symbol of government overreach, though plain people’s responses to it vary from catalyzing political engagement to reinforcing separation principles. Finally, the articles hint at generational shifts in attitudes toward political participation, though these changes appear more nuanced than simple young-old divisions would suggest. Rather, they seem to reflect broader patterns of how different segments of plain society are navigating engagement with contemporary American life.