"I am so happy to be here to talk to you about my mom. There's no one I love and respect more and believe in more," said the 27-year-old, who has traveled the country speaking to college students and young professionals in a campaign for her mother, Hillary Clinton. She stopped in Utah on Tuesday, a week before Super Tuesday, when Utah, along with 23 other states, will hold its presidential primary.

In her 45-minute town-hall-style meeting, she answered questions from audience members, ranging from what Hillary Clinton would do to stimulate the economy to ending the war in Iraq.

She talked broadly about issues Democrats have been known for championing, such as finding pathways to citizenship for undocumented workers and expanding health care. Hillary Clinton would allow undocumented workers who previously paid taxes to pay a fine and then start filing for citizenship. Those who had never paid taxes would begin paying back taxes and a fine and then be able to apply for citizenship.

When asked about pulling out of Iraq, Chelsea Clinton said her mother would love to pull out troops the day she became president, but there's no plan yet in place for withdrawal. Such planning would take at least 60 days to begin staged withdrawals.

"By doing that, it would send a clearer signal to Iraqis that they need to make decisions that are fundamentally Iraqi decisions, not American military ones," Chelsea Clinton said. "Eventually [the United States needs to be] getting back into the business of active diplomacy. It's great the president went to the region; it's tragic it took him seven years to go."

When asked what distinguishes her mother from the other Democratic frontrunner, Barack Obama, on issues such as education, she detailed specific programs her mother has worked with for decades, such as the Children's Defense Fund. She also talked about repaying student loans for those who enter the teaching field and creating programs to close the achievement gap between ethnically diverse students and whites.

"Why do I tell you all this? Because I do think experience matters. What she's articulated around education is more comprehensive and nuanced than anyone else on either side of the aisle that's running, because it's informed by her life's work," Clinton said. "I think that's true in issue after issue after issue that matters to all of us."

smcfarland@sltrib.com