It would be understandable, then, if Blackburn was feeling uncertain on Tuesday afternoon, when she and her team met Trump on the tarmac in Nashville. There was no way to know whether the president would, in fact, stick to his tweet from that morning, when he vowed to “focus” his “energy” on the GOP agenda going forward. The eight-term congresswoman, who’s expected to win the state’s August GOP primary, has trailed Bredesen in all three polls conducted in the race so far. As she suggested to Fox News on Tuesday, Trump’s “big crowds” could be crucial to sparking “momentum” for her campaign.

Yet in the few minutes she spoke Tuesday evening, far from seeming fazed by her footnote status, Blackburn appeared to understand exactly who her audience was: not a collection of voters she’d inspired to rally on behalf of her campaign, but loyal Trump enthusiasts who had come mainly to see him. Many people I spoke to before the rally admitted they didn’t know much about Blackburn. Her goal, it seemed, was to ensure that those same people left the auditorium convinced of one thing: that Marsha Blackburn stands with Donald Trump.

People began lining up outside the venue as early as Monday. They wore red Make America Great Again hats and ponchos to guard against the drizzle. One group, slouching in folding chairs, held up a banner that read, “Close our borders.” Of the dozens of people I saw in line throughout the day on Tuesday, not one carried a sign or donned merchandise in support of Blackburn.

Voters inside the cavernous auditorium made plain to me why they were there. About an hour before the rally kicked off, I met Roy and Becky Couch, who had driven in from Sevierville, Tennessee, over three hours away. The couple wore matching blue-sequin jackets and assorted MAGA gear. They’d come to the rally, Becky told me, because they adore the president. “We would go to the ends of Earth for Trump,” she said. “We loved him from the beginning.”

I asked if they knew much about Blackburn. “I’ve heard about her being here,” Becky said. “And I think I saw her on TV one time.”

Other people I spoke to gave similar answers. Twenty-one-year-old Caton McCarty, who’s stationed at the nearby Army base Fort Campbell, said he came to “see the boss man”—as in Trump. As for Blackburn, “I know the majority of my friends on Facebook are supporters of her,” he said. “Uh, I know …” he began, his voice trailing off, “not too much, honestly.”

Despite this predictable knowledge gap among the rallygoers—none of the attendees I spoke with were from her district— Blackburn didn’t use her stage time to paint a fuller portrait of herself. She didn’t talk up her conservative roots, or her tenure in the House, like her leadership of a House panel investigating Planned Parenthood in 2016. Nor did she specify what she wants to achieve in the Senate. Instead, she focused solely on her support for Trump.