Donald Trump will make America "better", a former Scottish Conservative general election candidate has said.

Mhairi Fraser, who stood for the party in Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill at the last general election, is travelling to the US to be in the country when the results roll in across all 50 states.

Fraser says she has "never been as excited" about a politician as she is about the billionaire property tycoon.

The 28-year-old lawyer says his views on tackling Islamic State are one of the reasons she is hoping Trump wins the race for the White House.

She said: "I just find him incredibly refreshing and I think he genuinely loves America.

"I think he sees that a lot of working class Americans have been left behind by the policies of recent administrations and that his country is sleep-walking into a politically correct-driven decline that it won't be able to get itself out of".

"More than anything though, and being British, I am hugely concerned about the existential threat to the West posed by fundamentalist Islamic terrorism."

She added: "I don't see Russia as a natural enemy and I don't think we should waste lives and money fighting them when we both need to turn our attention to our common enemy: terrorist Islamic groups like ISIS.

"Trump seems to recognise this and I don't think he'll repeat the mistakes that created this situation - Hillary will."

Since launching his campaign for the presidency, Trump has made a series of comments that many Americans have found offensive.

He accused Mexico of sending immigrants over the border who are drug dealers and "rapists".

Last month, the Washington Post published a previously unseen video of the Republican nominee from 2005 in which he said his celebrity status allowed him to do "whatever you want", including groping women.

Fraser is, however, not offended by the remarks. She told STV News: "I don't think he's a sexist and I don't think he's a racist.

"His recorded 'pussygate' comments were very unsavoury, sure, but I certainly don't think they amounted to an admission of sexual assault.

"I also think people conflate a desire to tackle illegal immigration - and his comments about illegal immigrants - with a dislike of immigrants generally, which he has been clear is not his policy.

"I prefer to look at what he's actually done - the way he has promoted women at his company and how highly they think of him; his fight to end segregation of blacks and Jews in country clubs in Palm Beach just a few decades ago, and the praise that the Reverend Jesse Jackson had for his efforts to help minorities and underprivileged communities, amongst other things."

Fraser said: "People are just dying to be offended at anything these days - they really seem to get off on being outraged.

"I find it much more offensive that people assume women will automatically put aside concerns about foreign policy and the economy and the email scandal and vote en masse for Hillary because someone said 'pussy'.

"I don't vote as a woman, I vote as a person, and I really don't care what colour or gender the leader of a country is as long as they are the best person for the job. It's the Left that makes everything about race and gender, not the Right."

She believes many more people from the UK support Trump but they "don't want to say it for fear of the reaction".

Despite supporting the Republican nominee, and being in the States on election day, Fraser will not be on the campaign stump for Trump.

"I don't intend to campaign, because I don't think a British girl knocking on doors trying to influence votes would go down any better than an American who doesn't live here knocking on doors during an election in the UK," she explains.

"I've never been as excited about a political candidate as I am about Trump - I think he is a real change-maker - and I hope to be there to see him voted in as president-elect of the United States."

Opinion polls in recent days have shown the Republican nominee closing the gap on Hillary Clinton.

Around 30 million Americans have already cast their ballot through the country's system of early voting.

Aidan Kerr is STV's digital politics reporter. He is covering the election from Washington DC and a number of swing states.