‘Everything that I care most about is at risk,’ Chelsea Clinton says

This election, if you’ve listened to either side of the aisle, is about the world you want to live in.

And the polls — no matter how far ahead or behind anyone has been — shouldn’t fool you.

The election is two months away, and Hillary Clinton supporters said they won’t take votes for granted. That’s why Chelsea Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee’s daughter, made her first two campaign stops since the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, one at the campaign’s State College headquarters.

To have her tell it, it’s the “most important election of my lifetime ... everything that I care most about is at risk.”

In a sign of what the campaign is aiming for in State College, one of the youngest people in the room introduced Chelsea Clinton.

Gillian Warner, 17, of State College kicked off the event and urged the crowd to register more voters for the upcoming election.

“There are a lot of important issues we have to think about: women’s rights, equal pay, equal opportunity for everyone,” Warner said. “We have to treat people with respect and keep moving forward in a progressive way.”

Chelsea Clinton pushed registering more voters during her 10-minute speech.

“There’s this impression that every young person is already engaged in this election season, but we think only about 55 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds are registered to vote,” Chelsea Clinton said. “We need to change that equation, and changing that starts right here. I hope all of you will talk to as many people as you can on the phone, in classes, on the street and kind of awkwardly have these conversations in coffee shops to see if people are registered to vote.”

It’s a message that some college students, particularly the hundreds in a group called Penn State Students for Hillary, will embrace.

“We need to get millennials engaged in the political process,” Johnna Purcell, president of the student group said. “... We are home to (40,000) undergrads and 45,000 students if you include grads. It’s important to get people between 18 and 25 engaged in this election and for them to be ready to vote. It takes a lot of ground game.”

Chelsea Clinton also took jabs at Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.

“We only have one person running for president that recognizes that climate change is real,” she said. “... We only have one person running for president who actually recognizes we need criminal justice reform at the federal, state and local level. ... We have someone who wants to build a wall and kick out 11 to 12 million people who are here working hard ... and we have someone who is committed to keeping families together.”

Chelsea Clinton said she wanted to continue progress made by President Barack Obama to “build a world that I hope my children grow up in,” not one in which Trump is the leader.

This story was originally published September 8, 2016 at 10:00 AM with the headline "‘Everything that I care most about is at risk,’ Chelsea Clinton says."