Campaigning with Vice President Mike Pence and Donald Trump Jr., relying on last-second robocalls from the president and Pence, using Trump’s campaign slogans — all of it worked to Gianforte’s advantage.

“Everything I see is that Greg Gianforte is trying to make him completely front and center. He might have muttered his name once or twice when he was running against me and now he wants to ‘drain the swamp’ and says, ‘I want to be with Trump every step of the way,’” said the state’s Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock on Wednesday — nearly seven months after he himself defeated Gianforte.

Quist, meanwhile, barely talked about Trump at all on the trail.

For Gianforte, the biggest applause lines of his Thursday night speech came when he mentioned Trump and used his “drain the swamp” theme. Local Republicans dismissed the idea that the president could drag Gianforte to defeat as preposterous.