Chelsea Clinton made two stops in Monmouth County on Tuesday. Watch video
HAZLET -- On the last day for residents in New Jersey to register to vote in the June 7 primary, Chelsea Clinton made two stops along the Jersey Shore to campaign on behalf of her mother, Hillary.
At events in Long Branch and Hazlet, Chelsea Clinton touted her mother's record as a "change-maker" and her ability to "deliver progress," and touched on a wide range of issues from early childhood education and gun control to income equality and social security.
"It matters that you need to know how to make change but also protect change," Chelsea Clinton said of her mother's accomplishments as first lady, a U.S. senator and secretary of state.
When asked by a supporter in Hazlet what her role in the White House would be if Hillary Clinton wins the presidential election, Chelsea Clinton declined to speculate and instead pledged her commitment to the upcoming primary elections.
"I haven't really looked forward, although I will say my life is in New York," Chelsea Clinton proclaimed. "So although I'm going to work really hard for my mom, to be in the White House and to be our president ... my life and work is in New York."
Chelsea Clinton, who is pregnant with her second child, said being a mother has changed her perception on the upcoming election.
"I think this is the most important presidential election of my lifetime," Chelsea Clinton said, adding it's the first one she will vote in as a mother.
Being a mother, she said, has also made issues like gun control and early childhood education personal.
"I think all the time about the Sandy Hook families," she said, referring to the 2012 shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 children were shot and killed. "I couldn't imagine living with the daily tragedy of my daughter not coming home everyday, which is what I imagine life is like for the Sandy Hook families."
Clinton said she commends those families for suing the gun manufacturers, and applauded her mom's efforts to stand up to the gun lobby. Chelsea Clinton said her mom is the only candidate currently running for president that voted against a law passed by Congress in 2005 that protects gun manufacturers from lawsuits against families of gun violence victims.
New Jersey holds its primary on June 7. Hillary Clinton holds a wide lead against her rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, in the polls among Democratic primary voters in the Garden State. Sanders has held several rallies in the state, including one at Rutgers University on May 8.
But Chelsea Clinton focused little on Sanders when she talked of her mother's rivals in the presidential election, instead directing her disdain at the Republican Party and its presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
"It's important to take unserious criticism from unserious people, unseriously," she said at her stop in Hazlet, referring to Trump's attacks on the Clinton family. "It doesn't mean that we ignore it. It doesn't mean that it doesn't merit a response, because I think right now as Americans we have a responsibility to stand up everyday to the misogyny, and the anti-immigrant rhetoric, and the Islamaphobia, and the racism that seems to be all too common from Mr. Trump and the Republicans."
A Donald Trump supporter drives by a Chelsea Clinton campaign event in Hazlet on May 17, 2016. (Photo by Alex Napoliello | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)The comment received a collective chuckle from the more than 100 people crammed into the Monmouth County Democratic Headquarters in the Airport Shopping Center in Hazlet. Outside the headquarters, approximately 100 feet away, roughly a dozen Trump supports gathered at the edge of the shopping center. One supporter drove a pickup truck right past the headquarters with a sign on the truck's bed that read, "Crooked Hillary."
At the gathering in Long Branch, held at Charlie's Ocean Grill, city resident David A. Brown, 19, said his mind is made up in the presidential election but he was curious to hear what Chelsea Clinton had to say.
"I'm leaning towards voting for Hillary Clinton, but I still want to hear what (Chelsea Clinton) has to say," said Brown, a junior at Rutgers University studying political science. "I think she's a better option than Donald Trump."
For Laurie O'Donnell, also a Long Branch resident, it's Hillary Clinton's dedication to the middle class that she's attracted to. O'Donnell said she would like to see a woman become president in her lifetime and thinks Hillary Clinton is the better Democratic hopeful to serve in the White House.
"I just can't see Bernie as our president," she said.
Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.