Tim Nicholls has done what all good politicians do on the campaign trail. He's smiled a lot, shaken many hands, had a few beers at the bar with locals, made some promises.
He's even dared to look silly riding a rollercoaster.
But it may not have been enough to win over the voters he angered when he was treasurer in the unpopular Newman government as he fights to become the 26th premier of Queensland on Saturday.
In parliament, the Liberal National Party leader has prosecuted arguments effectively, drawing on his experience as a solicitor at one of Brisbane's top-tier corporate law firms.
But on the election campaign trail, the 52-year-old has struggled to cut through and win over key battlegrounds while traversing regional electorates in the state's north and zigzagging across the southeast in the lead up to Saturday's poll.
He is conscious of the way he is perceived. He's a wealthy, well-educated city slicker in a vastly decentralised state who is up against a likeable Labor premier in Annastacia Palaszczuk. The LNP have acknowledged she's nice, but say "nice alone doesn't get the job done".
Dogged by the ghosts of his treasury portfolio, he has insisted he won't repeat so-called mistakes, having previously slashed 14,000 public service jobs and proposed selling off state energy assets.
"I have said it and I mean it, we made mistakes in the past that a future LNP government would never make again," he said at the party's campaign launch last Sunday.
Standing before his family, party faithful, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and federal members George Brandis and Peter Dutton, Mr Nicholls made the ultimate promise to Queenslanders: "I will not let you down."
Throughout the 27-day crusade, he has turned to his loved ones for inspiration, joined on occasion by his wife, Mary, and their three children, Jeremy, Duncan and Kate.
He has suffered only minor setbacks that have been overshadowed by the controversies of Ms Palaszczuk's own making.
While plumping his easy ride at the start of the campaign might have worked, Mr Nicholls has had to face his past, been inextricably linked to One Nation after refusing to rule out whether he'd seek their support to form government and lost the leaders forum to Ms Palaszczuk.
He has consistently tried to distance himself from the minority party, cautioned voters against supporting them and in recent weeks ramped up his criticisms.
And yet his party is preferencing One Nation ahead of Labor in a majority of the state's 93 seats.
Born in Melbourne, Mr Nicholls moved to the affluent, inner-Brisbane suburb of Ascot with his parents and two sisters as a 12-year-old, studying at the Anglican Church Grammar School, commonly known as Churchie, one of the most prestigious boys schools in the state.
His ascension from new kid on the block to Queensland opposition leader and potential premier has been one of calculated strategy.
The former Brisbane councillor and longtime Liberal member failed in his first punt for the party leadership in 2007, but was appointed shadow treasurer after it merged with the Nationals the following year.
In the wake of the rise and sensational fall of Newman's single-term government, Mr Nicholls pushed Lawrence Springborg from the top job in May 2016 - just 16 months after the LNP lost power.
He has been praised for his collaborative approach in the party room, but has had to work hard in an attempt to reset his image and resonate with Queenslanders beyond George Street.
He has failed to reach the popularity levels Ms Palaszczuk commands in opinion polls, and while the LNP entered the election campaign on near equal footing with Labor, who will claim power is still up in the air.
"My position has always been that we are going into this contest to win," he says.
"The LNP is the only party ... that will bring about the change that Queenslanders want - whether they're at the Gold Coast or whether they're on the Cape."
Now within reach of the premiership, Mr Nicholls must hope he's done all he can to persuade Queenslanders to grant his return from the political wilderness.
