Mr. Patrick needs to make up for lost time. With his unusually late entry into the presidential field in mid-November — months after his opponents’ campaigns were well underway — he trails in the polls, lags in both organization and fund-raising, and has been left out of debates.

Almost two months into his unlikely run, Mr. Patrick’s campaign has failed to make big headlines, draw attention-grabbing endorsements, or dominate a news cycle with standout policy proposals. Compared with his better-established rivals in a packed field, he is drawing thin crowds.

Perhaps the biggest embarrassment for Mr. Patrick, one of the two remaining black candidates in the campaign, came in late November, when a planned event at Morehouse College, the historically black institution in Atlanta, was canceled because only two people attended.

A journalist, though, showed up to capture a photo of the empty room.

While the other candidates are sweating through a marathon, Mr. Patrick is hoping to stage a last-minute sprint primarily by focusing on a two-state campaign strategy — banking on hopes that the early primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina will serve as springboards to propel his candidacy.

It is an untested plan, but the theory is that a better-than-expected showing in those two states, where he has relatively high name recognition, could give his campaign the jump start it needs, providing the credibility necessary to raise more funds and remain viable as the nomination battle continues.