Amish-Targeted Dark Money Group Wants to Beat Hillary Clinton

Photo | Ad Meskens via CC BY-SA 3.0

A Pennsylvania dark money group is trying to mobilize Lancaster’s Amish community — the largest Amish community in the country — to vote for  presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump this fall.

Amish PAC, which claims to be the first and only Amish-dedicated super political action committee, is spending on flyers and newspaper and billboard advertisements that will target Amish and Mennonite communities in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Each swing state has 60,000 Amish residents, according to the PAC’s website.

Because voting is is typically frowned upon by Amish church elders, WHYY reports, the Amish historically have a low voter turnout. The PAC sees TV and internet ads as futile for an untapped population of voters who shun electronics, so its advertisement “blitz” technique will fuel a get-out-the-vote campaign to drive Amish voter support.

The PAC, which is run by Lancaster’s Ben King, aims to beat presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump won the majority of votes in the Lancaster County primary in April.

Amish and Mennonite voters typically support “individual rights, personal responsibility, less government, lower taxes, and to protect their right to bear arms,” the PAC claims. Increasing Amish turnout by even five percent has the potential to sway the notorious swing state a little to the right.

Follow @ClaireSasko on Twitter.