What was the message, though? Genova paused only very slightly before reaching for Clinton’s slogan. “We’re strong together,” she said.

Several attendees told me they thought the recent turbulence was just the normal churn of the campaign season. “I’m always worried about the polls. I watch the polls every day. Typically do go up and down,” said Joe Gamble of Reidsville, though he added that she might do well to “maybe come out a little more forcefully against Trump.” “But not lower herself to Trump’s level,” Suzanne Thompson chimed in.

Many Clinton supporters feel her struggle to find a pithy way to sell herself is mostly a symptom of what they like about her. “She doesn’t play to the way the media is covering this election. It’s been reduced to smaller than a soundbite,” said Larry Lavender, a professor of interdisciplinary arts at UNCG. “Her flaw is she actually has ideas.”

There remains a certain amount of disbelief about Trump’s success. Simon Windecker attended the rally even though he can’t cast a ballot in November: He’s a German spending a semester studying at UNCG. Windecker, a political science student, pronounced the race “crazy, mostly because of the Republican candidate. I don’t think someone like that would be a candidate in Germany. Generally you have to know something about politics,” he said. And what if the calm among the Clinton supporters was misguided, Clinton can’t find a winning message, and Trump does win the election? For Windecker, there was always the end of the semester:“I would be glad to leave the country in December.”