TRAFFIC jams are fairly common in Intercourse, a rural hamlet in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where corn fields and rolling hills flank the winding roads. The congestion is caused by horses and buggies driven by the Amish, especially when they make left-hand turns. Lancaster County is home to more than 30,000 Amish, who shun most technology and society. They live simply—around a third of the 300,000 Amish in North America survive on the land. The rest own or work in small businesses. So it is a little jarring to see a billboard on the side of the road just a few miles outside the village urging them to vote for Donald Trump.

The billboard, which says that Mr Trump is “hard working, pro-life, family dedicated … just like YOU,” was paid for by AmishPAC, a political action committee targeting the self-segregated Amish community. Ben Walters, the PAC’s co-founder, says “every vote matters”, especially in critical swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Most Amish have never voted and have no interest in ever doing so. Their leaders tolerate the practice, but do not encourage it. Those who do vote, depending on how conservative their local church is, may be frowned upon. The Amish are not permitted to hold public office, and while they may take an interest in local elections they tend to avoid political engagement. They participate in other civic duties, like paying taxes, including income, property and sales tax. They do not receive or pay into social security as they believe it is their responsibility to look after the old. Their belief in self-sufficiency means they do not accept government subsidies.

The PAC may have a tough time selling Donald Trump, who could not be said to stand for Amish values. He is crude, arrogant and a braggart; the Amish are modest and prize humility. Mr Trump has been married three times and has declared bankruptcy; divorce and bankruptcy are cause for excommunication in Amish communities. Ben King, who left the faith three years ago and now does community outreach for the PAC, says the Amish like the fact that Mr Trump has a family-owned business. Mr Trump is also a builder and the Amish are known for building. But casinos are rather different to barns.

This difference may matter less than one might expect, however. All political candidates, of whatever party, are alien to the Amish and their values, says Steven Nolt, head of the Young Centre for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College near Lancaster. Part of being Amish is seeing the rest of the world as separate. “They are not identifying with Trump on any kind of personal level,” he says. But they are sympathetic to his party. When the Amish do vote, they tend to vote Republican and have done so for over a century. The party’s platform converges broadly with Amish interests. They like limited government, little taxation and the Republican Party historically has had a strong rural base. Some Amish listen to political talk radio when they get car rides from the Lancaster “English” (what the Amish call non-Amish), their mostly Republican neighbours.

Mr Walters hopes to replicate the “Bush fever” of 2004 when George W. Bush visited Pennsylvania, then as now a battlefield state, 44 times and won over the Amish with his folksy style and Christian talk. Voter registration among the Amish increased for that election by 169%. Of the 10,350 Amish adults in Lancaster, more than 20% had registered by election day, according to Donald Kraybill of Elizabethtown College. Turnout was 13%, up from the usual few percent. It did not take many votes to move the needle.

On October 1st, several dozen Amish went to see Mr Trump speak in Lancaster. Some were spotted in the VIP section, near the stage. Their dark, plain clothes and straw hats stood out in a sea of red “Make America Great” baseball caps and “Proud to be Deplorable” t-shirts. Mr Trump aimed a couple of remarks at the Amish, including a promise to protect the county’s farms by lowering taxes and cutting regulations. He also asked for prayers for the victims of a 2006 mass shooting at an Amish school. It is difficult to see how the rest of his rambling, boastful speech, with references to his former reality television show, resonated with the community. Still, Mr Trump must have impressed some; soon afterwards members of the community organised a town hall meeting to get more of their fellows registered. Mr Walters says he believes a recent bump in Republican voter registration is in part down to the Amish.

So far the PAC has raised a modest $100,000, but that’s enough to pay for billboards and ads in local newspapers. There is no need for a snazzy digital campaign or expensive television commercials—the Amish do not use television or the internet. But the onslaught from the Trump campaign has not gone uncriticised. The PAC had to withdraw ads in The Budget, which reports Amish weddings and church news. Angry readers had never seen a political ad before and thought it was an endorsement.