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Swedish 'descendants' vote Republican

The Local Sweden
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Swedish 'descendants' vote Republican

While a majority of Swedes are rooting for Barack Obama, Americans living in towns with Swedish origins overwhelmingly vote Republican.

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A joint investigation by CNN in Sweden and Swedish analytics firm United Minds has shown that US cities with Swedish-sounding names are predominantly conservative.

In the 2008 US election Senator John McCain was the big winner in the US towns of Lund, Kalmar and Gothenburg, which are all named after Swedish cities.

McCain won 83, 60 and 74 percent of the votes in each respective town.

A great majority of Swedes living in Sweden, however, prefer the Democratic Party and Barack Obama over the Republicans and Mitt Romney.

Eighty-nine percent of Swedes would like to see Obama win the 2012 US election, according to a poll conducted by the Aftonbladet newspaper.

Carl Melin of United Minds explained that the traditional Swedish settlement regions in the US often consist of small and mid-sized towns, and in the US, Democrats tend to flock to the bigger cities.

"Many believe that Obama will receive the lowest share of votes ever from white Americans," said Melin.

"The Swedish settlement regions are very white."

Melin does not believe that residents in these parts of the US have been won over by Obama since 2008 and predicts that most Americans with Swedish roots will opt for Mitt Romney in the 2012 election.

However, the CNN and United Minds investigation found two exceptions: In Stockholm, Wisconsin and Stockholm, Maine the support for Obama is strong.

In these towns, named after the Swedish capital, Obama received 69 and 61 percent of the vote, respectively in 2008.

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