Chelsea Clinton Projects Hint At Political Aspirations

Chelsea Clinton is involved in projects ranging from gay rights to international health through her father’s foundation, leading many to think she’s angling for an eventual run for office.

The former first daughter has been gradually increasing her public profile in recent years, and now has taken on a larger role at her father’s foundation. Chelsea made a recent trip to Malaysia to focus on Clinton Foundation work, especially “related to health, not just in the United States but also around the world.”

Clinton said the foundation expand its work in Asia distributing low-priced medicine and health products, including HIV drugs and child vaccines. She also visited Myanmar earlier this week for a project providing water purification packets to areas with unsafe water supplies.

“I hope to go back soon” to Myanmar, Clinton said. “My father and my husband are quite jealous now because my mother and I both have been to the country, and they have not.”

Chelsea Clinton said her projects for now are aimed at humanitarian aid.

“My goal is always to do as much as I can in whatever area I’m working in,” she said.

But Chelsea Clinton has other projects closer to home as well. She has begun advocating for marriage equality in the United States, and has tweeted message of support for gay right.

“It just seems so fundamental to me. I’m able to marry the person I wanted to marry,” Clinton said. “That’s the fundamental human imperative. Those of us who have been lucky enough should expand these rights to others.”

Back at home, Clinton just took on a new job at New York University, leading an interfaith center. Clinton was recently named co-chair of the Of Many Institute for multifaith leadership.

“The Institute supports a new generation of religious and civic leaders who, deeply rooted in their own religious and spiritual traditions, reach across faith boundaries to solve social problems together,” the institute says in its mission.

Chelsea Clinton’s involvement in the range of public projects lead many to believe she will follow in her parents’ footsteps and make a bid for office. She even addressed the rumors of a run at politics at a Clinton Foundation event earlier this year.

“Right now I’m grateful to live in a city, a state and a country where I strongly support my mayor, my governor, my president and my senators and my representative,” she said. “If at some point that weren’t true and I thought I could make a meaningful and measurably greater impact, I’d have to ask and answer that question.”

Chelsea Clinton could have more projects in the coming few years related to a political run, even if not her own. Her mother Hillary is reportedly mulling over a run at the presidency in 2016, and so far the former Secretary of State has led early polls.