WHO WILL USA VOTERS WITH WELSH LINKS BE VOTING FOR?

THE US election campaign is now in its very final stage and Welsh Americans face the prospect of either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the White House.

Clinton supporters dread the thought of the property billionaire getting access to the nuclear codes, while Trump voters fear she will take the country in a dangerous direction.

Here, US voters with Welsh links share their thoughts with DAVID WILLIAMSON on an election race which has transfixed the world. Dave Parry, from Chicago, Illinois Originally from Aberystwyth, the 41 year-old said he came to the US after “a long series of misadventures”.

Being a Welsh American is, he said, “a lot easier than it used to be, thanks to a great run by our sports teams and visibility of our actors and musicians”.

He added: “It’s odd flicking on NBC on a Saturday afternoon and being able to watch Swansea from the comfort of my couch.”

His greatest hope is that the US will “finally start keeping their noses out of other countries” and “invest what they save on these overseas military adventures on free healthcare and universities”.

Mr Parry would never vote for Trump but is not excited by Clinton.

He said: “It’s sickening that Hillary is the other option, to be honest. I gave to the limit in 2008 to the Obama campaign and made a fair few donations to Bernie to help keep her away from the White House. That plan went bust, I’m going with the Greens this time around.” Susan Floyd, from Austin, Texas The 37-year-old archivist is a fan of Welsh international footballer Joe Allen but this is not her only connection to Wales. Her Welsh ancestors came to around the 1620s.

She admits that Scottish Americans and Irish Americans have a higher profile in US culture than their Welsh counterparts but said football and the last presidential campaign have shone a spotlight on this nation.

She said: “I think the most recent incidence of the term ‘WelshAmerican’ being in the mainstream media was probably when Mitt Romney was running for president in 2012, because his wife, Ann Davies Romney, is a first generation Welsh-American.

“The Euros also greatly increased recognition of and interest in Wales within the American football fan community.”

Describing her hopes and fears for the United States, she said: “My greatest hope is that we will continue to struggle together, toward living up to the revolutionary principles of liberation inherent in the (flawed, but brilliant) Declaration of Independence. My greatest fear Virginia in is that we will continue down our current path of rancorous division fuelled by ignorance and white fear of demographic and cultural changes; so, currently, that is manifested in the fear that we will wake up, Brexit-like, to a Trump win – which would undoubtedly be a catastrophe not just for the United States but for the entire world.”

She added: “I am to the left of Clinton, but Trump has made me a Clinton fan. I already voted for her during early voting here in Texas – on the morning of the first day, in fact.” Michael I Walling, from Youngstown, Ohio Mr Walling’s maternal grandmother was born in Pontypool in 1884. This 75 year-old retired trial lawyer, who served in Vietnam, backed Bernie Sanders during the primaries and posted “yard signs” in support of the left-wing senator.

He said: “[It] doesn’t take a genius to look at a Red and Blue electoral map to realise this election is a choice about whether the southern, crypto-racist, fundamentalist coalition will get a president who will help them fight the tide of history for another four years, or whether the monied, northeastern Yankee mercantile, quasi-liberal influences, which are more or less typified by Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama, will maintain control.

“Of course, there are plenty of liberals and progressive in the southern states, and plenty of rednecks in the northern states, so I trust you understand that I am making generalisations for the purpose of conciseness and brevity.”

Summing up his thoughts on Trump, he said: “I rather suspect that he is probably amazed that he has reached a point where he might actually be president. I also suspect that he really doesn’t have a plan, and that all of his promises are like ice cream castles in the sky.” Mary WilliamsNorton, from Dekorra, Wisconsin This 70-year-old trained as an experimental nuclear physicist and then taught physics, astronomy and science teaching methods before retiring.

Her mother’s paternal grandparents, John and Jane Jones, married in Yr Wyddgrug (Mold) in 1858 and then emigrated to Connecticut. She believes that having a sense of her Welsh roots helps build empathy.

“If we are proud of our origins and understand why our ancestors came to the USA, we can understand why others might wish to do the same,” she said. “We might also understand and help to break down barriers for others.”

A Trump presidency, she said, would be “very bad” for the states because his plans “all seem to be designed to take us in the wrong direction” and his “attitude toward women is despicable”.

She plans to vote for Clinton, whose mistakes “seem to me to be orders of magnitude less serious than Donald Trump’s”. Gregg Welch, from Austin, Texas The 47 year-old has retired from the navy and is now working part-time as a delivery driver. His “ninth greatgrandfather” came from Wales to America in the 1790s.

His greatest hope for the US is that its “military withdraws from as many countries as possible and shrinks in members and budget while still being able to defend ourselves and our allies”. His greatest fear is that “we will go to war again”.

A Trump presidency, he said, “would be a disaster” bringing “worse economic pain than Brexit and our country would be an international embarrassment”.

In contrast, he expects Clinton would “appoint excellent judges” and might “raise taxes on rich people and invest more in infrastructure, education and healthcare reform”. Meredith Efken, from central Texas This 42 year-old novelist writes fantasy and magical realism under the pen name “Meredith Rose”.

She said: “My great-great-grandparents came from the Merthyr Tydfil area and settled in Colorado, where my great-great-grandfather was a coal miner. Eventually, they moved to Iowa.

“My mother was always very proud of our Welsh heritage, and gave me a Welsh name to honour it. She especially loved Wales’ musical tradition (she was a pianist), and she loved the language, even though she never learned to speak it.”

Turning to the election, she said: “I absolutely will never vote for Trump or anyone like him. I think a Trump presidency would be chaotic, and it would likely cause the greatest harm to the most vulnerable members of our society – minorities, women, people living in poverty, members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“This wouldn’t just be because of his policies, though he could cause plenty of damage at home and globally. But the president also has the cultural power to set the discourse in the country... The damage this could wreak will take a generation or more to undo.”

Ms Efken has already cast a vote for Clinton. Susie Smith, from Albuquerque, New Mexico Ms Smith has two favourite places in Wales – Merthyr and Blaenavon. She came to Wales in 2014 for two weeks, returned in 2015 for a month, then came this year for two months; next year she plans to spend three months in Wales.

Before Clinton won the Democratic nomination she was a supporter of left-winger Bernie Sanders.

She said: “My greatest hope is for a healing of our political system through a real transparency in all facets of government and ending corporate America’s stranglehold on our country. My greatest fear is Trump will be elected President.”

She has to vote for Clinton to stop Trump winning, she argues, adding: “If she were a candidate in Wales, she’d be Labour and I’m more a Plaid Cymru person.”