A veteran GOP strategist on Tuesday questioned why President Donald Trump didn’t campaign on the ground for Matt Van Epps, the Republican nominee in Tennessee’s special election to fill a vacant U.S. House seat.

“Donald Trump used to love doing political rallies. I’m surprised he didn’t do it here. We saw him phone it in, but that’s exactly what he did. He phoned it in,” Doug Heye told CNN just hours before Van Epps won the race.

Roughly a month after GOP losses in several key races, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Republican National Committee chair Joe Gruters attended a Van Epps rally on Monday. Trump, fresh off several days of little to no public events on his schedule, spoke to the crowd via phone. He later dropped into a tele-rally for the Republican.

Van Epps, who is running in a district that went to Trump in last year’s election, has received over $1 million from MAGA Inc., a Trump-backing super PAC. In an Emerson College poll conducted late last month, Van Epps held a narrow lead (48% to 46%) over Democratic nominee Aftyn Behn.

Heye, a former RNC communications director, said he feared Republicans — aside from Johnson and Congress’ GOP campaign arm — didn’t leave “everything on the field” in the race.

“If Donald Trump had gone on the ground in Tennessee and done a big rally for this, he would have been able to claim credit, if Republicans win tonight, about how he brought this race home,” Heye said.

Moments earlier, Heye argued that an election result within “single digits” could be a “big warning sign” for Republicans heading into next year’s midterms.

“Special elections do not determine what happens a year later. We do overrate this. But if it is that close, it’s going to be a big deal,” Heye said.