He began as a local hero who cleaned up the litter-strewn streets of several major cities. He ended up being one of the biggest heroes of the 2024 election — a man who many are crediting with saving America from a Kamala Harris presidency.
If you haven’t heard the name Scott Presler yet, sometime between now and Inauguration Day, you will. And you’ll hear it a lot. Presler — known as “The Persistence” on X — became an unlikely folk hero when his tireless efforts to turn Pennsylvania red for Donald Trump worked — and worked spectacularly.
And far from being a politico in the mold of James Carville or David Axelrod, Presler is simply a Trump fan and concerned citizen who worked his tail off and may have helped tip the presidency.
Presler’s story began modestly. In fact, you may have heard of his beginnings in social activism — although the notion that, years later, he’d deliver the presidency to Trump would have caused peals of laughter to ring out.
Presler, a graduate of George Mason University, became a popular human interest story during the 2016 campaign because he was both 1) gay and 2) an organizer with the Republican Party of Virginia.
“Using the hashtag #gaysfortrump, he is outspoken about his support for the presumptive GOP nominee, tweeting nonstop attacks on Democratic opponent Clinton, knocking on doors and registering voters,” The Virginian Pilot reported in 2016. “His reception on Twitter is mixed, but he’s welcomed by Trump backers.”
Presler came out as gay after the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, also in 2016, which killed 49 people; the alleged murderer had sworn allegiance to the head of the Islamic State terrorist group.
“The moment that I came out, I’ve never received so much love, and I’ve never received so much hate at the same time,”
“I love to tweet, and I love to get my message out there, and I think that I do represent a unique sect of the GOP. … I’m proud of who I am, and I’m proud to be part of the GOP.”
Did you vote in the 2024 presidential election?
Yes: 98% (108 Votes)
No: 2% (2 Votes)
Presler’s next moment in the spotlight came in 2019, after then-President Trump called the city of Baltimore a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” This had something to do with the fact that the characterization, if slightly hyperbolic, also wasn’t exactly inaccurate — something Presler proved by organizing a cleanup of the Maryland city.
“Everybody was pointing the finger, but nobody was doing anything,” Presler told Breitbart in 2020, referencing tweets by Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who took issue with Trump’s assessment of Baltimore.
“I said, OK, I’m going to send out a tweet saying I’m going to the city of Baltimore even if it’s me standing on a street corner picking up trash,” he added.
“From that we had more than 170 volunteers descending on the city of Baltimore, and we picked up 12 tons of trash in 12 hours in one day.”
From there, he began a tour of America’s beleaguered Democrat-run cities, which have had no shortage of detritus issues over the past decade or so. No prizes for guessing which city Presler found to be the most begrimed.
“I can just tell you I have been to some of America’s most dirtiest and dangerous cities — I’ve been to Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco. San Francisco was the only city where you had to watch your step because of human excrement,” he told Breitbart.
Presler’s visibility in the pr0-MAGA movement kept growing — but it was his work in Pennsylvania, and specifically his work mobilizing the Amish, that made him a hero to the Republican faithful.
In September, Fox News described how they “followed Scott Presler as he made his near-weekly stop at the massive Green Dragon flea market in Ephrata, outside Lancaster.
“The Friday-only market is a popular stop for tourists and locals alike, including the area’s Mennonite and Amish population. Amish, Mennonites and Brethren make up a large portion of the county population, and when they come out to vote, they typically also lean Republican. Both Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump courted the Anabaptist community during their administrations.”
“And as you can see, we’re out at fairs. We’re going to farmer’s markets, fraternity houses, American Legions, gun stores, supermarkets, gas stations. Our motto is to meet people where they are,” Presler said. “We want to bring our conservative message to the voter and get everybody registered to vote.”
Even the U.K. Telegraph reported on the unusual effort by Presler in an Oct. 15 piece: “The flamboyant, one-time chairman of Gays for Trump has given himself a new task: to persuade Pennsylvania’s 80,000-strong, strait-laced Amish community to vote for Donald Trump and in doing so, return the former president to the White House. It seems a tall order.”
However, that “tall order” may have been changed by the government cracking down on Amish farming practices.
“For decades, the Amish have largely declined to vote — one farmer told me they prefer ‘to put our faith in God’ — but this time around may just be different. Angered, if the Amish could ever get angry, by a raid by state authorities on a local farmer selling raw milk, the community appears to be stirring,” the Telegraph reported.
And, of course, once it became clear that Presler might have a role in tipping Pennsylvania, the media and the Democrats — but I repeat myself — began to get nervous.
NBC News, for instance, branded him an election conspiracy theorist and said in a March article that Presler “helped spread a wide range of conspiracies, including about QAnon, in recent years.”
“Scott Presler is an election-denying conspiracy theorist, which just makes him par for the course in terms of new major RNC staff hires,” said Alex Floyd, the DNC’s rapid response director.
Except the usual “election denier” rigamarole didn’t work this time. The results in Pennsylvania — and the 19 electoral votes in Trump’s column — spoke for themselves. So did the Amish for Trump posts all over social media on Election Day:
🚨 #BREAKING: Early reports are showing that the Amish are turning out in UNPRECEDENTED NUMBERS to vote for President Trump in Pennsylvania
This is MASSIVE!
HUGE credit to @ScottPresler for making this happen! pic.twitter.com/GUUKxEVj60
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 6, 2024
🚨 AMISH FOR TRUMP
Amish typically do not vote but this year there may be a surge of amish at the polls in Pennsylvania.
Google says there are about 92,000 Amish in Pennsylvania, the Amish could quite literally swing the election if they all voted. pic.twitter.com/rASSqM7Avb
— Nick shirley (@nickshirleyy) November 4, 2024
Eighty thousand Amish people in Pennsylvania are voting for the first time this year.
They are voting for Trump. pic.twitter.com/a5atpXaqd3
— SULLY (@SULLY10X) October 29, 2024
And as for Presler’s future? He’s promised to turn Pennsylvania red — think Florida north — and is setting his sights on other Northeastern states, as well:
I’m staying in Pennsylvania. pic.twitter.com/aCMIcSlCq4
— ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) November 6, 2024
I make a commitment right here & now that we will be registering new Republican voters in New Jersey
& commit time in 2025 to the gubernatorial election.
— ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) November 11, 2024
As a Garden State native whose sole experience in GOP candidates winning our fair state in my years following politics were Christine Todd Whitman and Chris Christie’s gubernatorial wins, count me as skeptical. But then again, this is Scott Presler we’re talking about here.
If he can turn the Amish into Trump voters, Lord only knows what the man can do to a state full of Taylor Ham and Springsteen devotees. Whatever the case, however, Presler’s star is shining bright, and it looks like it’s only going to get brighter from here on in.
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