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DERRY, N.H. — The signs read, “Fighting for Us.” The new theme song is “Fight Song.” The documentary video shown at the beginning of her events is titled “Fighter.”

And, now the tough fight ahead in the New Hampshire primary has become part of the Hillary Clinton campaign’s central messaging.

“I come here well aware of the fact that political pundits have been opining, as political pundits do, that I should have just skipped coming to New Hampshire,” said Mrs. Clinton, who trails Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont by double digits in most polls in and around the state.

She continued: “Their argument is — and it’s got some strength to it, “Look, you’re behind here and you’re in your opponent’s backyard. New Hampshire always favors neighbors, which I think is neighborly, and, you know, maybe you should have just moved on to other states where everybody says you’ve got big leads and all of that.”

“I have to tell you,” Mrs. Clinton told an intimate crowd at an event space at the Derry Boys & Girls Club. “I just could not ever skip New Hampshire. I could not even imagine not being here, not being in settings like these.”

If Bill Clinton famously vowed at a New Hampshire town hall to stand up for struggling Americans “‘till the last dog dies,” his wife is keeping the dog on life support. She trailed Mr. Sanders by 19 percentage points in a Marist poll conducted Jan. 17 to Jan. 23, and her advisers have urged her to focus time and resources on Nevada, which holds its caucuses on Feb. 20.

Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Clinton, told reporters that the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday was “not about the margin” but about “who Hillary Clinton is.”

New Hampshire has delivered a helping hand to the Clintons in the past, including making Mr. Clinton “the Comeback Kid” after he emerged from scandal to place second in the 1992 primary.

Mrs. Clinton pulled off a surprise victory against Barack Obama after finishing third in Iowa in 2008. This time, the odds are even tougher, campaign officials said.

“It’s a different scenario this time around,” Ms. Palmieri told reporters.

In 2008, she added, “we were not running against somebody who had been an elected official next door sharing a media market for 20 years, so we think this is different but she’ll work as hard as she can.”

On Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton brought some of that fight to the town-hall-style event in Derry, criticizing Mr. Sanders for saying she was a progressive “some days.”

“It was kind of a low blow,” Mrs. Clinton said, and proceeded to list the high points of her résumé. “It was a good day for progressives when I helped get eight million kids health care,” she said. “I think it was a good day for progressives when I joined with colleagues in the Senate to help stop George W. Bush from privatizing Social Security. I think it was a good day for progressives when I went to Geneva and Beijing to stand up for gay rights and women’s rights.”

“I hope we can keep it on the issues,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Because if it’s about our records, hey, I’m going to win by a landslide.”

But first, she has to fight.