With an eye toward maximizing turnout by young voters and minorities, the Hillary Clinton campaign on Friday dispatched vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine to Florida A&M University to deliver remarks peppered with reminders about Donald Trump's divisive rhetoric.

  • Kaine's appearance sparsely attended
  • Democrats concerned younger voters not enthusiastic about Clinton
  • Kaine: Florida "will be one of the closest, if not the closest" battleground states

Rich with African-American students, FAMU has been a perennially popular destination for Democratic White House hopefuls and their running mates.

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In contrast to massive campus rallies held by then-Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, during the 2008 campaign, however, Kaine's appearance was sparsely attended. The low turnout bore out the concern held by some Democrats that the Clinton campaign isn't generating adequate enthusiasm among younger voters.

The campaign's ability to motivate young minority voters, in particular, could rely less on Clinton's policies than on her opponent's pointed critiques of women, Mexican-Americans, Muslims and immigrants.

"Ku Klux Klan values, David Duke values, Donald Trump values are not American values," Kaine, a senator and former governor of Virginia, told the crowd. "They're not our values, and we've got to do all we can to fight, to push back and win."

Kaine also said that Florida "will be one of the closest, if not the closest" of the presidential battleground states in November.

Florida and its voters represent an opportunity for Clinton to deny Trump a viable path to the 270 electoral votes required to win the presidency. Thus, her campaign is devoting significant resources to turning out African-Americans and other Democratic-leaning minority voters that could swing the state in her favor.

But whether those resources will pay off as they did for Democrats in 2008 and 2012 is still an open question.

"I think young people think their votes don't matter," said Ashanti Jones, a FAMU student who attended Kaine's rally. "So we have to get them out there, let them know that their votes do matter and that we're minorities, but we are the majority."