DV Journal

In the wake of the 2024 election, there is a dispute over how big the Amish vote for Trump was in Pennsylvania. The Wall Street Journal leans toward an increase of Amish voters in 2024, and The Philadelphia Inquirer dismisses that theory.

The battle is important for two reasons. Producing more Amish voters was part of the GOP’s strategy in Pennsylvania and is a major reason why conservative activist and voter turnout guru Scott Presler is being so widely touted.

Presler, a frequent guest on my show, would often call me from an outdoor farmers’ market with a lot of Amish, gun shows with hunters, and truck stops with, you guessed it, truckers. He mined these locations for unregistered Trump voters. This approach worked incredibly well, and maybe more importantly Presler is hiring more staff for New Jersey’s 2025 governor’s race and the three Pennsylvania  Supreme Court seats up next year.

Presler told the New York Post, “I didn’t invent the wheel. I just took the Democrats’ tools and used them to elect Republicans.”

He was in many ways the Trump ground game in Pennsylvania, targeting counties like Bucks and Luzerne and flipping them red. He made the weekly release of voter registration numbers an event like a lottery drawing. He has already started working on Sussex County in New Jersey using the same tactics.

Linda Kerns flanked by Joe DeFelice (left), her attorney overseeing Philadelphia, and Tom Petruczuk, the RNC election entegrity director for Pennsylvania. The trio had just learned they called Pennsylvania for Trump.

He recently tweeted to his over two million followers on X that the town council of Edison, N.J.  has banned the American flag and other props from its meetings, and suggested it would be a good idea to show up with lots of flags and a voter registration table. That is the type of concentrated activism that gets publicity and results.

In fact, Presler said on my radio show that he has chosen Wildwood to be a premier spot for his operations in spring and summer of 2025 due to its reputation as a vacation spot for people from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. A generous Wildwood boardwalk vendor has ready given him a spot to set up his registration table.

The other person who moved the needle for Trump in Pennsylvania was attorney Linda Kerns. Kerns was the Trump campaign’s 2024 Pennsylvania Election Integrity Counsel. She was so efficient and relentless in fighting in court to make sure election laws were followed that Talk Radio 1210 listeners accepted voting by mail-in ballot and thus greatly increased Trump’s numbers.  \And she has not closed up shop but is already strategizing to insure election integrity in the 2025 Pennsylvania elections. Her bio on Twitter says, “Election integrity equals freedom.”

Presley and Kerns are really the tip of the spear driving and directing the forces of change ready to wash over America. Yet, any number of Democratic Party leaders have not gotten the message and are still talking down to voters.

On Dec. 2, the Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee’s X account posted ,”Record air travel, holiday shopping busting records, stock market at all-time highs. The economy is ‘the worst ever’ some Pollyannas whine. And here we were thinking y’all couldn’t afford eggs!” Does that sound like people who get how the Biden administration policies created huge and predictable inflation that harmed Americans? Or does it sound like the elite attitude that the Democratic Party can’t hide from American voters.

The governor’s race in New Jersey and the Supreme Court races in Pennsylvania will be the next battlegrounds. I wouldn’t bet against Presler, Kerns, and energized voters.

Republican strategist Scott Presler of Early Vote Action is sometimes called the “Pied Piper of early voting and voter registration.” In a recent interview with Megyn Kelly, he laid out his strategy to get enough registered GOP voters to give Donald Trump the edge in Pennsylvania.

Presler’s strategy hinges on grassroots voter mobilization, focusing on key demographic groups including truckers, Amish residents, hunters, and veterans.

“All of our time, talent, and energy is going just to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Presler told Kelly.

Presler emphasized the organization’s commitment to building a robust ground game.

“We have a state director and 50 paid field staff on the ground all across Pennsylvania’s 67 counties,” he said. “And I want to dispel any myths right here and now that there is no ground game. I’m a data guy, so let’s go over the numbers for a second.”

Presler highlighted the narrowing gap in voter registration between Democrats and Republicans over the last few election cycles.

“In 2016, the Democrats had an advantage of nearly 1 million more (voters) than ours,” he said. “Donald Trump won Pennsylvania by 40,000 votes. Fast forward to 2020. That data showed our advantage was narrowed down to 650,000, and Pennsylvania was ultimately decided by a very narrow 80,000 votes.”

“Now, where are we today? That advantage has been narrowed down to 333,000. If you take out inactive voters, that number is just 160,000. So Pennsylvania is very much in play.”

Presler expressed confidence in the Republican position, pointing to significant declines in Democratic voter registration and mail-in ballot requests.

“The Democrats are down at 416,000 mail-in ballot requests from where they were four years ago at this same time,” he said. “So, again, 2020 was decided by 80,000. They’re down 300,000 voter registrations and they’re down 466,000 mail-in ballot requests. Republicans, in my humble objective opinion, are in the best place possible to actually win Pennsylvania and therefore the presidency this November.”

He detailed specific outreach efforts targeting truckers.

“There are 80,000 truckers in Pennsylvania alone,” Presler said. “If we mobilize that group, we win. Truckers are busy serving us, the American people. They’re driving rigs on Election Day. I spoke with a wife whose husband, a Pennsylvania truck driver, did not vote in 2020 because he was working. We are pushing them to get a mail-in ballot and to vote early to ensure they lock in those votes.”

Presler discussed the campaign’s activities in the Amish community.

“There are 90,000 Amish in Pennsylvania, and I know in the 2020 election, only 2,000 Amish voted,” he said. “We are meeting the Amish where they are—setting up voter registration tables at key locations like Roots Country Market [in Manheim, Pa.] and The Green Dragon Farmer’s Market [in Ephrata, Pa.]. We’re emphasizing that the Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro is waging a war on their values, including school choice and religious freedom.”

He also laid out a clear focus on veterans.

“We have 800,000 veterans in Pennsylvania,” Presler said. “After the recent vice presidential debates, veterans do not take kindly to stolen valor or the Biden administration’s mishandling of Afghanistan. We are going to VFW halls and American Legion events to connect with these voters.”

Presler’s strategy also extends to Pennsylvania’s hunters, where he identified another significant voter pool.

“Thirty percent of Pennsylvania hunters are not registered to vote—over 300,000 hunters,” he said. “We have been visiting every gun show, gun store, and archery range, and we’re even advertising in newspapers to connect with this crucial group.”

The courting of hunters comes after the Biden administration blocked federal funding for youth hunting and archery programs through the Department of Education, a decision criticized as an attack on the Second Amendment and lawful gun ownership.

Critics assert that decision reflects a broader agenda to diminish hunting rights.

In his group’s approach, Presler emphasized the importance of data-driven community organizing. He said the strategy his organization is using to turn out those voters mirrors that undertaken by former President Barack Obama in 2008.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel; we’re using a model similar to President Obama’s community organizing strategy,” he said. “When we register someone to vote, we collect essential information to follow up and ensure they actually vote.”

As Nov. 5 approaches, Presler stressed the urgency of mobilizing support.

“This election is Trump’s to lose,” he said. “I think numbers matter. The fact that Republicans registered 12,500 new voters in the last week while Democrats only registered 7,600 is a clear indicator of momentum.”

He included a call to action for his supporters, urging them to focus on turning out votes.

“The only thing that matters is ballots into boxes,” Presler said. “The last date to register voters is on Oct. 21. We need to use every single day to court voters and lock in those votes on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.”

Presler discussed the plan at President Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa. on Oct. 5, featuring his return to the community where a would-be assassin shot the former president in the ear and killed audience member Corey Comperatore on July 13.

Presler emphasized the importance of grassroots voter mobilization.

“Pennsylvania, you have the power to change the world. Pennsylvania wins the White House,” Presler said.

He stressed the critical role that voter turnout would play, urging attendees to check their registration status and engage actively in the electoral process.

“Please, I ask you today, check your voter status. Make sure you’re an active voter registered at your current address,” he said.

At the Butler rally, Presler also courted union workers, a demographic he believes holds significant sway in the state, and college students.

“To our union workers, we want your vote. We want to keep jobs here in America,” he said.

Turning his attention to college students, he urged them to make their voices heard.

“To our sorority sisters and our fraternity brothers, you have the power,” Presler said. “If you’re going to school here in Pennsylvania, register to vote legally and lawfully here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

Presler urged the audience to get out the vote.

“I feel this from the top of my head to the tip of my toes, I love our great country,” he said.  “President Trump took a bullet for us. Please use your ballot and have his back on Tuesday, Nov. 5, and deliver Pennsylvania for Donald J. Trump.”

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Republican “vote whisperer” Scott Presler came to Philadelphia on Saturday to do training for Republicans and bring hope to a demoralized city party.

Philly Republicans are frustrated, and with good reason. The party was humiliated in last month’s municipal elections when it lost the two city council seats reserved for the minority party to the far-left Working Families Party. There are now just two Republicans left in the entire elected city government.

“I think it’s a broader trend that really needs to be addressed about how competitive the Republican Party can be in a city that is diverse and in urban environments,” Republican City Commissioner Seth Bluestein told NBC 10. Bluestein also noted GOP mayoral candidate David Oh outperformed every Republican since Sam Katz in 2003.

Oh got 24 percent of the vote in his loss to Democrat Cherelle Parker.

“We need to engage the grassroots,” Philadelphia 5th Ward (Center City) GOP Chairman Michael McLaughlin told DVJournal. “And the Republican Party needs to have better outreach given that 2024 is upon us.”

“We had a nuclear meltdown,” McLaughlin added. “When you’re at rock bottom, there is only one place to go: up.”

Sam Oropeza, who ran for city council and state Senate, hosted Saturday’s event at a new apartment building in Kensington.

“What really bothers me, being a Republican here in Philadelphia is we stopped conservatives from throughout the whole state of Pennsylvania from getting into Harrisburg, where they belong. We need your help, and we need to take action.”

“I’m proud to be a Republican,” Oropeza continued. “I’m proud of our values…And we are a wide, diverse group of people.”

Oropeza said one reason for the GOP’s collapse was the unwillingness to use mail-in ballots.

“We’re not going to change the laws before 2024, so early voting, we must build a presence here,” said Oropeza. “Get out. Share voter applications. Share vote-by-mail applications. Show people how to do this.”

Presler echoed that view, saying embracing mail-in ballots is critical for the GOP to win in 2024. For the Supreme Court race in November, Democrats had 450,000 mail-in ballots already locked in. The Republican judge, Carolyn Carluccio, lost by 200,000 votes.

“So, in part, the mail-in ballots secured the victory for the Dems,” said Presler. “Based on voter registration data that, the mail-in voter is 87 percent more likely to vote. An in-person voter is 53 percent likely to vote,” said Presler. “Every mail-in ballot that the Democrats get locked in, they’re likely to get their voters to the polls than we are.” Two people had told Presler they could not go to Saturday’s event. One because their child had an earache, and the other because they had an unexpected issue. The same thing happens on Election Day, he noted.

“To beat Joe Biden, we have to have a diverse approach to voting,” said Presler.

He showed the group of about 45 people how to use his app, Early Vote Action. It shows Republicans living nearby and offers scripts for knocking on doors, phone calls, scripts for texts, and thank you letters.

“I hear complaints from voters: ‘Scott, I’ve lived here in Philly for 60 years. No one’s ever knocked on my door.’ We’re the people who are going to introduce them, going to bring them to the Republican Party.”

And while David Oh’s 24 percent might sound depressing, Presler argued that it could be a game-changer on a statewide level. If the GOP can deploy at least 20 percent of the Philadelphia vote for whomever the 2024 presidential nominee is, “it’s game over,” and the Keystone State would go into the GOP’s column.

Albert Eisenberg, a political consultant with BlueStateRed, worked for Drew Murray and Jim Hasher, the two Republicans who lost the at-large council seats reserved for the minority party.

“They were organized and funded from out-of-state,” Eisenberg said about Working Families. “They’re operating as a branch of the Democratic Party. They’re not a minority party. They’re clearly collaborating with the local Democrats. They endorsed people in the mayoral and city council races.”

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro endorsed Working Families Councilwoman Kendra Brooks.

Eisenberg also said the media, including The Inquirer, was “not curious about what it means to be supported by the democratic socialists.”

“They are the people that helped organize the Hamas rally on Walnut Street,” said Eisenberg. “And if it were a white supremacist rally, you’d better believe The Inquirer would have been all over it. I would say there was a lack of curiosity on the part of the left-leaning media people. Look how they cover (District Attorney Larry) Krasner.”

Until there is “more balance” in the media and in Philadelphia’s elected officials, “the city is going to just keep going backward,” he said.

Temple Political Science Professor Robin Kolodny said, “I do not think it is appropriate to say that the Republican Party in Philadelphia did anything ‘wrong’ in 2023. Political movements are only as robust as the number of your supporters, so this reflects that Philadelphia and its surrounding counties are trending more Democratic.

“In other parts of the state, the Republican Party is dominant, and the Democrats are less effective. The real question for Republicans everywhere is whether new voters are going to join their party or not. Every day, someone turns 18 years old, and someone else passes. If those people are of the same party, nothing changes. That is what a lot of organizers are paying careful attention to,” Kolodny said.

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Conservative activist Scott Presler is hoping to create an army of “professional voter registrars” in his likeness to bring thousands of new Republicans to the polls in the midterm elections in battleground states like Pennsylvania.

The son of a retired Navy captain said he has gotten so good at the gig that he has even done it from the comfort of a hot tub.

Presler was in Bucks County earlier this week hoping to help elect Republicans like Pennsylvania gubernatorial hopeful Doug Mastriano and U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Presler called Bucks County an “all-important bellwether” district that predicted presidential winners in past elections

“I’ve got the information, but I’m one human being,” Presler told the Delaware Valley Journal in an interview. “I want to create more Scott Preslers across the country. So my goal is, when I go out and knock with these members of the community, I want to teach them and train them for when I’m not here, so they can do the work without me.”

Presler’s first stop was the Doylestown Borough and Township Republican Club, followed by a speaking engagement before the Pennridge Area Republican Club in Perkasie.

Presler–dressed in a pink shirt, tight blue jeans, and cowboy boots–was quick to open up the voter-registration playbook with a few trade secrets for dozens of the area’s staunchest Republicans.

Part of his strategy centered on trolling prominent Democrats online.

Whenever President Joe Biden posts on his official White House Facebook page, Presler is quick to comment about how the Democrat’s failed “regressive policies” have hurt Americans.

“If you’re unhappy with Joe Biden, then please register to vote at your current address. I’m happy to assist any and all of you in registering to vote,” said Presler, showing volunteers an example of one of his boilerplate “anti-Biden” attacks that got him 480 “likes and hearts.”

It is a telltale sign to Presler that Americans are dissatisfied with Biden – and Democrats in general.

“That shouldn’t be happening. It should be angry faces,” he said. “I used Joe Biden’s White House Facebook page to register a new Republican voter. It’s so fun.”

Before deciding to enter into the realm of political activism, Presler was a dog walker. He remembers when, at age 24, he watched Barack Obama win re-election in 2012 and felt powerless. Then, in 2019, he was inspired to get involved by then-President Donald Trump’s criticism of Baltimore as a “disgusting, rat-and-rodent-infested mess” where no one wanted to live.

Those remarks propelled Presler to organize a cleanup of the city’s “most dangerous streets.” The event was a smashing success, with hundreds of volunteers helping pick up 12 tons of trash in a single day, Presler said.

He’s replicated the event in virtually every big city in America, from Atlanta to Philadelphia. And now he’s doing the same circuit again, this time focused on voter registration.

For his efforts, the Virginia-born political operative has been both praised and vilified as an “American Patriot” and a “nutty MAGA conspiracy theorist.”

He spoke at CPAC in 2021, and in the same stroke, found himself in the crosshairs of the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center. Presler was slammed for serving as a top strategist for ACT for America, which the ADL and SPLC called one of the largest anti-Muslim hate groups in the U.S.

Presler’s speaking engagements in other cities have attracted counter-protestors and some have events been canceled. But not much of the criticism seems to phase Presler, who pushed back against the idea that he’s anti-Muslim by touting his support for Dr. Oz as he seeks to become the first Muslim to serve in the U.S. Senate.

And the political activist’s supporters don’t scare easily, either.

“We’re used to the name-calling, and we know it never amounts to anything,” said Kim Bedillion, president of the Pennridge Area Republican Club. “The Southern Poverty Law Center goes after many conservative, mainstream Republicans and Christian organizations and paints them as difficult. We’re used to that and we’re used to being called names like ‘deplorable’ and ‘Bible-thumper.’ We take that as a point of pride. If the Southern Poverty Law Center is going after Scott Presler, God bless him. We don’t get defensive; we just do the work.”

That work includes mounting voter-registration drives at gas stations, with “Pain at the Pump” signs in tow, ubiquitous Wawa convenience stores, Home Depots, and gun shops–all hubs for Republican voters, as Presler tells it.

He pointed to a “50-50 split” during a recent gas-station drive in a reliably blue part of New York as a potential harbinger for what’s to come.

He told volunteers to think as Democrats do in terms of their target audiences, noting they are likely to be at high schools, nursing homes, and “graveyards,” a riff on the old joke about dead people voting Democrat.

“You’re gonna have a lot of these angry mama bear events. Those people that show up are going to be the doers. Politics needs to be inescapable for the next five months,” he said.

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