A Clinton presidency would be of economic and political benefit to Ireland, according to Niall O'Dowd, a Hillary Clinton campaigner and founder of the Irish Voicenewspaper.
"There would also be no other US president who would work as hard as Senator Clinton to keep up the gait of the Northern Irish peace process," Mr O'Dowd said in an address to the Democrats Abroad Ireland group in Dublin yesterday.
Mr O'Dowd emigrated from Ireland to the US in 1979. He led the Irish-American peace delegation to Northern Ireland on behalf of the White House in 1993. He spoke yesterday about the significant Irish contribution to Democratic politics in the US and the importance of a Democratic president to the Irish lobby for immigration reform.
Mr O'Dowd told RTE's News at Oneyesterday that Hillary and Bill Clinton would visit Ireland later in the year to fundraise among American citizens living here and those who hold American green cards.
Such was to pressure to raise funds for the election in the US that fundraising abroad was "actually an option" now, he said.
To date, Irish-American groups have raised close to €1 million for the Clinton campaign. It is expected that they will raise a further €1 million before the end of the campaign.
Mr O'Dowd said that the "white Irish Catholic" was now more important than ever and that this group would influence the outcome of next year's election, particularly in key states like Pennsylvania.
Kate Fitzgerald, chairwoman of Democrats Abroad Ireland, said: "It is certainly an important year for the Democratic Party with such a wide, promising field of candidates," she added.