President Donald Trump greets Louisiana gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rispone. | Gerald Herbert/AP Photo

President Donald Trump has faced a number of blows this week. Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin conceded to his Democratic rival on Thursday, even after Trump invested time and energy to get him reelected. Public testimony of the House impeachment inquiry revealed damning new details about the president’s dealings with Ukraine.

But during a rally on Thursday night, Trump doubled down on what he hoped he could get. In a relatively brief rally and his second visit to Louisiana in the last two weeks, the president urged voters to turn out for Republican Eddie Rispone, who is running to unseat Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat. While he characterized Rispone as a loyal supporter (the two wore matching outfits on Thursday’s stage in Bossier City), he portrayed Edwards as beholden to the whims of national Democrats and responsible for Louisiana’s poor standing in national rankings for homicide and insurance costs.

“He lied to you. He double-crossed you and you can never trust him, he will never vote for us,” Trump said of Edwards, who took office in 2016.

Edwards and Rispone face each other in a runoff election on Saturday. The tight race is drawing national attention as Republicans are concerned about sustaining a second gubernatorial loss in a largely conservative state.

Earlier Thursday, Bevin, the Kentucky governor, conceded to his Democratic opponent, state Attorney General Andy Beshear, who narrowly prevailed in the vote last week. Trump had also campaigned in Kentucky, as part of his dive into a handful of red states — including Kentucky and Louisiana — in an effort to get out from under impeachment’s shadow. During Thursday’s rally, Trump still claimed he’d “brought him up a lot” — referring to the close outcome while also washing his hands of Bevin’s loss.

“The headlines: Trump took a loss,” the president said of the Kentucky race. “So you’ve gotta give me a big win, please. OK?”

The Republican National Convention is also pouring an additional $1 million into the Louisiana race in a last-minute effort to save the election. Another loss in the state would be a major setback to team Trump’s counter-campaign to the impeachment drama playing in Washington.

Not that impeachment didn’t have a major role in the president’s campaign efforts. Trump brought up House Democrats’ inquiry repeatedly during the Thursday rally, using old lines attacking the party for what he characterized as an effort to nullify the 2016 election and disregard the will of his voters. At one point he even claimed that Edwards was a pawn for Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the de facto leader of the impeachment investigation.

Trump also took a cynical turn during the rally and said Republicans in Congress wanted the impeachment proceedings to continue because it riled their constituents. But the president, who seemed more tired and less enthused than in past rallies, asked for it all to stop.

“My whole life is crazy. What a life I lead,” he said. “You think this is fun, don’t you? But it’s been very hard on my family.”

At just under an hour and 10 minutes, Thursday’s rally was one of his shortest in months, and he hardly ever raised his voice or introduced new insults.