Beyond the Ballot Box Margins
Further Insights from Amish News Coverage in Pennsylvania's Political Theater

Three weeks ago, I outlined how plain people’s growing numbers in Pennsylvania create an intriguing electoral dynamic—a demographic that doesn’t play by conventional political rules yet holds theoretical weight in tight races. Since then, the media spotlight has turned toward Pennsylvania’s Amish with intensity. Election-season profiles have appeared in outlets from The Times of London to The Economist, regional papers to national outlets, each trying to crack what they frame as the plain voter enigma. Their coverage offers an unexpected gift: a collection of voices and perspectives that, while no substitute for qualitative research, provides fresh albeit preliminary insights into how plain people are processing and responding to intensified political outreach.

Recurring Campaign-Season Narratives

The media’s fascination centers on a compelling numerical coincidence that has become something of a campaign season motif: Pennsylvania’s over 80,000 Amish residents mirror Trump’s 2020 loss margin in the commonwealth (although 40-some-percent of that number are aged under 18!). The face-value numeric parallel has motivated a coordinated ground campaign, such as by Scott Presler’s Early Vote Action, which has seemingly supplanted previous election cycles’ “Amish PAC.” 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, for instance, attempt to connect thinking familiar to plain people with political action, such as coupling references to “hard work” with calls to “Pray For God’s Mercy For Our Nation”—complete with stylized imagery.

When explaining plain people’s traditional voting abstention, media accounts generally default to simplified narratives about two-kingdom theology or separation from the world. While these touchstones aren’t inherently wrong, they overlook deeper cultural thinking I explored in my previous post—particularly how generations of Amish navigating state interactions have shaped contemporary hesitations to place selves into unfamiliar political contexts. Yet the coverage does illuminate a fascinating tension: how these long-held positions are being tested against today’s political mechanisms, especially as Republican operatives promote mail-in voting as a way to participate while maintaining social discretion.

A Sampling of Amish Perspectives

While media narratives tend to repeat familiar talking points, recent articles together offer something valuable: direct conversations with plain people themselves. Across multiple news outlets, we glimpse eleven different voices from Lancaster County’s Old Order Amish. While not offering the desired detail formal research interviews do, these quoted voices still provide a revealing sample of attitudes toward political participation. Of course, all interviewees are from Lancaster’s mainstream Old Order Amish only, and perspectives should not be extended to other types of Amish or neighboring plain people.

1.     Henry Stoltzfus (quoted as “Stoltz”) (vegetable farmer, Manheim, age 45): “Trump has some good ideas, especially on the economy,” he reflects, before adding thoughtfully, “But you see, I don’t like his morals.”
2.     Amos Miller (dairy farmer, Bird-in-Hand): Central figure in an ongoing raw milk legal controversy. Sidesteps direct political statements but emphasizes agricultural freedom, noting approvingly that RFK Jr. “respects farm-to-consumer freedom.”
3.     Sam Stoltzfus (horseradish maker, age 81): Listens to telephone recordings of Fox News briefly each morning. Critiques Trump’s bankruptcy history and post-2020 behavior, concluding Harris is “the less of the evils.”
4.     Paul Beiler (quoted as “Bilier”, possibly non-Amish living among Amish) (cattle farmer, age 34): Expresses strong Trump support with “Trump is strong! I like it,” while acknowledging limited political knowledge.
5.     Steven Stoltzfus: Has voted since 2016. Estimates half his friends will vote, noting “most times it is just boys” who participate.
6.     Barbie Stoltzfus: Challenges monolithic portrayal of Amish thinking: “Where do 37,000 people all think alike?” Explains how her husband encourages family voting while respecting individual choices. Identifies abortion as key issue.
7.     Elmer Stoltzfus (store owner, Ronks): “I don’t like the way the media puts us into a box,” he states, preferring identification as a “regular Christian voter.” Notes that “a lot of people love to complain but don’t love to go out and vote.”
8.     Daniel (small business owner): Quotes Jesus—“My kingdom is not of this world”—maintaining traditional abstention even when pressed about religious freedom concerns. “That’s pretty much how we feel about it.”
9.     Leroy Stoltzfus (retired farmer, age 84): “God takes care of that, and he has already,” he says of choosing government leadership, emphasizing divine rather than electoral process.
10.  Linda (dairy products store): Views voting as “quite a big deal here, some do, some don’t.” Plans to vote for Trump but considers it a private matter.
11.  Lydia Fisher (store owner): Seeks “someone who loves the country, who loves conservative values.” While her husband expresses reservations about Trump’s character, both plan to vote regardless, hoping “more people would vote.”

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.

Could Amish Vote En Masse This Election?

Plain people are discussing the politics and the election, some with fervor echoing Trump’s own devotees, a handful even willing to step into the spotlight. Others just follow the news as it becomes available because, well, everyone’s interested in what’ll happen. I remember learning of the 2020 presidential election outcome not from the media but on a Swartzentruber Amish farm, and from a female adolescent acquaintance. Whatever their personal feelings, plain people are unquestionably interested in the election outcome.

For anyone seeking to mobilize an Amish vote, his challenge is finding ways to translate the activity as within “our” (Amish) social constellation, a phenomenon described by semiotician Werner Enninger (e.g. 1980; 1987; Anderson 2017). “Our” signals a feeling of familiarity, ownership, and comfort. “Ours” does not mean it can’t also be “theirs”, although what is “theirs” often does serve as a warning that it shouldn’t be “ours”. Competitive softball, chiropractors, pyramid marketing schemes (direct sales), and Christian-themed folk music all eventually found legitimacy as “ours,” at least in some Amish circles. Alternatively, opera, a liberal arts education, and gifts of the Holy Spirit have not; that’s “theirs” alone. For political involvement, some dynamics complicate whether it’s “ours” and “theirs” or just “theirs.” In some plain circles, Trump is indeed “our” president, but voting and politicking is still not “our” activity. And of course, given the well-entrenched Amish views of government—involvement being long antithetical to plain people’s thinking—grafting politics into “our” world will come hard.

Cite This Article

Anderson, Cory. 2024. “Beyond the Ballot Box Margins: Further Insights from Amish News Coverage in Pennsylvania’s Political Theater.” As Well As: Addendums That Redefine (blog), October 28. https://coryanderson.org/as-well-as/beyond-the-ballot-box-margins

References

Anderson, Cory. 2024. “An Emerging Non-Voter Bloc: The Dilemma of Plain People in Pennsylvania’s Political Chessboard.” As Well As: Addendums That Redefine (blog), October 8. https://coryanderson.org/as-well-as/an-emerging-non-voter-bloc

Anderson, Cory. 2017. The Undistinguished Scholar of the Amish, Werner Enninger, -or- Has the Time Yet Come for Rigorous Theory in Amish Studies? Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies 5(2):196-238.

Enninger, Werner. 1980. “Nonverbal Performatives: The Function of a Grooming and Garment Grammar in the Organization of Nonverbal Role-Taking and Role-Making in One Specific Trilingual Social Isolate.” Pp. 25-65 in Understanding Bilingualism, edited by Werner Hüllen. Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang.

Enninger, Werner. 1987. “On the Organization of Sign-Processes in an Old Order Amish (O.O.A.) Parochial School.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 21:143-70.

News Articles Referenced

“admin”. 2024. “Do the Amish vote? Answers are tough to find.” Legacy Newspaper, October 22. https://www.legacynewspaper.com/do-the-amish-vote-answers-are-tough-to-find/

Benson, Samuel. 2024. “In Pennsylvania, a push to win the Amish vote.” Deseret News, October 14. https://www.deseret.com/politics/2024/10/14/amish-vote-pennsylvania-trump-harris/

Brown, Janice Weber. 2024. “Confused by pro-Trump billboard on Route 23 that focuses on the Amish [letter].” LNP, October 15. https://lancasteronline.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/confused-by-pro-trump-billboard-on-route-23-that-focuses-on-the-amish-letter/article_feec534c-8a5d-11ef-8583-57eb3b646d2f.html

Dunn, Tom Newton. 2024. “Why is Donald Trump targeting the Amish vote in Pennsylvania?” The Times, October 24. https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/why-trump-is-targeting-the-amish-vote-in-pennsylvania-9q8s7mrmk

The Economist. 2024. “Barnstorming: Republicans ramp up efforts to court Amish voters in Pennsylvania.” The Economist, October 17. https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/10/17/republicans-ramp-up-efforts-to-court-amish-voters-in-pennsylvania

Guerra, Shirleen. 2024. “Do Amish vote? That depends.” The Center Square, October 24. https://www.independentnews.com/news/national/do-amish-vote-that-depends/article_dac9959d-177f-5f90-9074-55afd6d383dc.html

Hall, Richard. 2024. “’We leave it in God’s hands’: Republicans court a skeptical Amish community in Pennsylvania.” The Independent, October 4. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/amish-trump-republicans-vote-b2622222.html

Herr, Lois. 2024. “Why are the Amish reliably Republican? [letter].” LNP, October 13. https://lancasteronline.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/why-are-the-amish-reliably-republican-letter/article_3f453b98-8702-11ef-bc90-13a0a068f87b.html

Lisi, Clemente. 2024. “Why The Amish Could Decide This Year’s Presidential Race.” Religion Unplugged, October 15. https://religionunplugged.com/news/2024/10/15/2024-vote-why-the-amish-could-very-well-decide-this-years-us-presidential-election

Nolp, Paul. 2024. “Loud US election barges into quiet Amish country.” GPK Media, October 24. https://www.gpkmedia.com/news/national/loud-us-election-barges-into-quiet-amish-country/article_fa0b351b-211d-58e6-a3f5-435e9fa86545.html

Stoltzfus, Joyce A. 2024. “This Stoltzfus is voting for Harris [letter].” LNP, October 13. https://lancasteronline.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/this-stoltzfus-is-voting-for-harris-letter/article_9b41b170-8652-11ef-96b3-23018522dcb5.html

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