Amish For Trump? President Touts Pennsylvania Dutch Supporters At Allentown Rally

In an unusual campaign move, President Donald Trump touted his Amish supporters during a rally Monday in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The Amish, a traditionalist Christian church known for their simple living, are strongly apolitical. Just 1,000 Amish Pennsylvanians voted in 2016, according to a study cited by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Yet, several Amish were seen in the crowd at the Trump event.

"We have Pennsylvania Dutch...They're great people...Pennsylvania Dutch are voting en masse...Hard workers, incredible craftsmen. You've done work for me over the years, I'll tell ya. They can throw up a barn in about two days,” Trump said during the rally.

Pennsylvania is a major swing state, with the Trump campaign hoping that Amish voters will turn out for him. In 2016, Trump won Pennsylvania by a slim margin of around 44,000 votes. There are just over 15,000 Amish eligible to vote in the state this cycle.

Amish tend to be anti-abortion and pro-deregulation, making them a ripe target for the Trump campaign.

“Both policy and rhetoric around limiting business regulation, limiting taxation, religious liberty, those sorts of things would be important,” Dr. Steven Nolt, Professor of Anabaptist Studies at Elizabethtown College, told WHP-TV, a CBS-affiliated television station based out of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

At the same time, the Amish often shy away from political activism and voting entirely. The Amish believe in a “Two Kingdoms” theology, meaning there exists a spiritual kingdom and a material kingdom, with the spiritual kingdom being more important. Therefore, many Amish feel that voting is an unnecessary worldly act.

“I don’t vote; I’m just not interested,” an Amish craftsman from Lancaster County told Al Jazeera in 2016.

In January, members of the Amish community met Trump at the White House.

Republicans have courted the Amish vote in the past. Former President George W. Bush went to heavily Amish areas of Pennsylvania during his 2004 reelection bid. Bush lost Pennsylvania to Democrat John Kerry.

Trump may have a harder time winning Pennsylvania in the 2020 election. A YouGov poll released Monday showed Democratic nominee Joe Biden leading Trump in Pennsylvania by 7 points, 51% to 44%.