Move over Boaters for Trump, here come the Amish!
The Amish/Mennonite community held a pro-Trump parade in Fredericksburg, Ohio, on Saturday — replete with horses and buggies, cows, wagons, and maybe a few chickens thrown in for good measure.
The parade was organized by Bikers for Trump in an effort to help “energize” Amish/Mennonite support for Trump and provide the traditionalist Christian sects a more visible voice in the 2020 election.
From horse-drawn carriages to wagons decorated with Trump-Pence banners, to two guys riding steers, it was a sight to behold.
“All of the enthusiasm was on Trump’s side,” one man said. “When was the last time you saw the Amish community get involved like this?”
All of the enthusiasm is on Trump's side. When was the last time you saw the Amish community get involved like this? https://t.co/uqGp7XWN8L
— Mike LaChance (@MikeLaChance33) September 19, 2020
#PatriotsUnited 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Z0V9RwQcLX
— RedCap004BU (@BuCap004) September 19, 2020
Amish for Trump 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/vUHYuiDiOI
— RedCap004BU (@BuCap004) September 19, 2020
As reported by Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, Chris Cox, founder of Bikers for Trump, said the Trump PAC was not in Fredericksburg to try to talk the Amish and Mennonites into voting.
”We’re not here to try to change their narrative. We’re not here to talk them into voting. We already know there’s a giant swell of interest from the Amish community regarding Trump. Our goal is to give them a little louder voice. To give them a direct path to Donald Trump’s ear.”
“This is something else,” Cox said. “History in the making. These were the Amish brave enough to step forward and to put it out there to make a statement like this.”
According to the Amish PAC website, Ohio and Pennsylvania host the largest population of Amish in the United States. Both states have nearly 100,000 Amish residents each, and that number is skyrocketing. The average Amish family has 6-8 children.
When Amish vote, they vote for individual rights, religious rights, and less government regulation on their farms and businesses. The objective of Amish PAC’s Plain Voter Project is to drive up Amish voter registration and turnout — which would strongly favor Trump.
As reported by The Washington Post in October 2019, more than 6 million Pennsylvanians voted in the 2016 presidential election; the state’s 20 pivotal electoral votes were decided by a margin of fewer than 45,000 voters. While the state is home to roughly 100,000 Amish, most who are eligible to vote don’t do so.
Via the Post:
Amish PAC aims to garner more votes for President Trump in 2020 in a state both the president and the Democrats are desperate to win. Amish people tend to align strongly on policy with Republicans, who share their opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.
But making voters out of the Amish, who forgo television and the Internet and believe fiercely in the separation of their religious community from government intrusion, may be a steep goal.
On a farm where eight Amish children in their traditional clothing were playing baseball, a young woman said sternly of those who would ask the Amish to vote: “We don’t really appreciate that.”
As she skillfully snapped lima bean pods off the bushes at her farm, another woman said about voting: “My husband never did; I never did.”
The same answer at market stall after market stall, where Amish farmers sell their wares: Never voted. Never wanted to vote.
Yvonne Beiler, a Mennonite farm owner, said she had heard about the voter-registration push, and she wasn’t interested. “We don’t vote, and we just try to pray for our leaders,” she told the Post. “I guess we just feel like it’s not for us to vote. That would be our belief, I guess,” she added. “I’m not exactly sure. We just don’t do that.”
But Ben Walters, who co-founded Amish PAC, said the tide is turning. He said he heard from more Amish people who were willing to vote in 2018 than in 2016. He thinks the numbers in 2020 will be even higher.
“Their votes would be so important, and there’s a lot of them. Since 2016, every single year, it gets a little bit easier. We’re seeing more and more signs of progress. I think behaviors are finally changing.”
So, in 2020, will Trump rock the Amish vote? If so, let’s hope those two guys on the steers are able to get to the polls and back home without incident. That’s no bull. (Sorry, I couldn’t stop myself.)
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