This summer, Emily Lines has a remarkable mission: she is bringing the US election campaign to the streets of Germany. Together with her team from Democrats Abroad Germany, the official foreign organization of the Democratic Party, the 36-year-old American wants to set up information stands, distribute flyers and organize events.
In five months, it will be decided whether Democrat Joe Biden will remain President of the United States – or Republican Donald Trump will return to the White House. If the election is close, the votes of the 4.4 million Americans living abroad could also be decisive. In no other country in the world is voter turnout higher than in Germany: In the last presidential election in 2020, 25 percent of US citizens cast their votes here. In percentage terms, that is about three times as many as in Great Britain, Canada, Australia and Japan, according to figures from the Federal Voting Assistance program.
Campaigner Lines is originally from the state of Indiana and has lived in Berlin for 13 years. She is vice-chair of Democrats Abroad Germany, which has more than 10,000 members. The association is part of the global umbrella organization Democrats Abroad, which is active in 52 countries and will send around 21 delegates to the Democratic Party’s nominating convention in Chicago in August.
In Germany, around 141,000 US citizens are eligible to vote (as of 2020; more recent figures are not available). According to the Federal Statistical Office, almost 70 percent of them are first-generation immigrants, and almost a third have dual citizenship. The statistics do not record which presidential candidate they voted for in the previous elections. Lines suspects that most of them are supporters of the Democrats. “In Germany, the things that the Democrats stand for have been implemented: health insurance for all, maternity protection, parental leave, hardly any gun violence,” says Lines, who works at a foundation for scientific cooperation in Berlin. “When you live and experience this yourself, it is difficult to vote against it.”
Representatives of the Republican Party see things differently. In Germany, there are two associations that could hardly be more different in terms of content and style: Republicans Overseas and Republicans Abroad. Neither association is officially part of the Republican Party, but rather independent interest groups that are at odds with each other and reflect the division of the Republicans in the USA in Germany as well.
The press spokesman for Republicans Overseas, Benjamin Wolfmeier, is the son of an American and a trained bookseller. In an interview with WELT, he said that what he particularly appreciates about Trump is his “peace-oriented foreign policy and good economic record.” The 2020 elections were “illegal” and “stolen,” and the German media’s reporting on Trump was “one-sided and partly wrong,” says Wolfmeier.
The 47-year-old is not afraid to appear at the German far-right AfD party. In 2020, for example, he was a guest on a YouTube format hosted by AfD Bundestag member Petr Bystron. He also gave a lecture to the Bundestag parliamentary group on the topic of “What Germany can learn from ‘Make America great again'”. His association says it has membership numbers in the upper three-digit range and organizes meetings and lectures. Wolfmeier says that in Germany, Americans who are members of the military or business people tend to be Republican – and those who work at German universities tend to be Democratic.
A counterpoint to Wolfmeier’s association is Republicans Abroad, a group of classic conservatives who are critical of Trump. Their vice-chairman is Ralph Freund, a consultant and asset manager from Frankfurt am Main. The 58-year-old is German and is not eligible to vote in the USA, but has worked and studied there. His association has set itself the goal of representing Republican values in public; he does not campaign.
In Freund’s eyes, Trump did implement a few sensible things in his first term, such as tax reform and stronger measures to combat illegal migration. “However, when it comes to trade and foreign policy, he is acting irresponsibly,” says Freund. “Trump is attacking the rule of law and has distanced himself from the classic values of the Republican Party in this regard.”
Despite all the differences, what the organizations have in common across party lines is that they are committed to ensuring that more US citizens vote. Despite the comparatively good rate in this country, the voter turnout of Americans living abroad is significantly lower than that of other nationalities. The main reason is the very complicated process of applying for mail-in ballots. Americans are also receiving support for this from the non-profit U.S. Vote Foundation. Executive director Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat is convinced: “When we vote, we are powerful.”