“You want something to vote for, not just against,” Clinton said in a 30-minute speech. She touched upon some of her shortcomings in a race in which an unusually high number of millennials are considering voting for third-party candidates.

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“Even if you’re totally opposed to Donald Trump, you may still have some questions about me,” Clinton said. “When it comes to public service, the service part has always been easier for me than the public part.”

Clinton said she has difficulty talking about herself and “will never be the showman my opponent is.”

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“And you know what?” she said. “That’s okay with me. No one will work harder to make your life better. I’ll never stop, no matter how tough it gets.”

Although Clinton is far more popular than Trump among young voters, fully a quarter of those under age 40 voiced support for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson or Green Party hopeful Jill Stein in a Washington Post-ABC poll released last week.

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The polling also suggests that significantly more of those considering Johnson or Stein would otherwise be supporting Clinton rather than Trump in a two-way race.

(Among likely voters 40 or older, only 6 percent voiced support for Johnson or Stein in the Post-ABC poll.)

In her remarks, Clinton made no mention of either third-party candidate, instead seeking to draw contrasts between what a Clinton presidency and a Trump presidency would mean for millennials, in both tone and substance.

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Clinton drew some of her loudest applause when recounting her efforts to work with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont — the runner-up in the Democratic primaries — to craft a plan that would make public colleges and universities free for families with incomes up to $125,000 and seek to make undergraduate education debt-free for everyone.

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During the nomination process, polls showed voters under age 30 flocking to support Sanders in much larger numbers than for Clinton, a politician who has seemed less authentic to many young voters of both parties.

Clinton also ticked off her positions on other issues on which her views align more closely with the majority of young voters than do those of the Republican nominee. Among them: raising the minimum wage, combating climate change, expanding access to affordable health care and ensuring equal pay for women.

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“This is going to be close,” Clinton said of the November election. “We need everyone off the sidelines. Not voting is not an option. It plays into Trump’s hands. It really does.”

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In advance of the speech, a senior Clinton aide acknowledged the campaign needs to do a better job engaging millennials and speaking to them not only about “the case against Trump” but also why to vote for Clinton.

"The millennial generation is a key voting bloc in this election, and it's clear that the campaign must do more to earn their vote,” said Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri.