No-one in Denmark was happier to hear Hillary Clinton’s presidential announcement than Mira Borggreen.
The 32-year-old from Odense founded political grassroots organisation ‘Danes for Hillary’ in June 2014 in support of a 2016 Clinton campaign. And following Sunday’s announcement, Borggreen held a pizza party at her home.
‘Danes for Hillary’ was founded to coincide with the release of Cliton’s memoir ‘Hard Choices’. Currently a small organisation with under 1,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter, the membership numbers are expected to grow now that the presidential campaign has been confirmed.
Borggreen writes weekly posts on the ‘Danes for Hillary’ webpage using her extensive Clinton knowledge.
She holds an MA in American studies from SDU – for which she wrote a thesis entitled ‘It Takes a Village, an analysis of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s political philosophy’ – and notes ‘Hillary Rodham Clinton and the American presidency’ as one of her specialties on LinkedIn.
Each post rates Clinton’s week on a scale of one to ten, where one indicates that she might lose the election and ten is smooth sailing.
This is not America
While the Federal Election Campaign Laws’ §30121 prohibits donations or contributions from foreign nationals, Borggreen told the Daily Beast that members of ‘Danes for Hillary’ intend to go to the US to volunteer and will encourage expat Americans to vote.
“She does have a huge following in Denmark,” she told the American newsite.
Another ‘Danes for Hillary’ member, Anne Nygaard, the 25-year-old deputy mayor of Aarhus, told the site that although she is a Dane, she is also a global citizen.
“I feel responsible for having an impact on the election in America and who becomes the next president,” the Radikale politician told the Daily Beast.
Nygaard, who juggles being a deputy mayor with studies, has even applied for a job to canvass for Clinton.
“I actually just reached out to the team behind Ready for Hillary asking if they wanted a college intern from overseas,” she said.
Politicians Ida Auken and Magnus Heunicke follow the organisation on Twitter and who knows – maybe one day Clinton will show up in a Helle Thorning-Schmidt selfie.
She is after all the world’s third most admired woman according to a YouGov poll from late January (placing sixth in Denmark and first in the US).
