On a Friday night in Altoona, the Blair County Convention Center was packed to the rafters with Donald Trump supporters. There was an overflow room downstairs and a crowd waiting outside that couldn't get in. Trump discussed everything from ISIS to Supreme Court justices.
But it was the talk of jobs that got the crowd excited.
"We are not going to let your jobs leave, folks," Trump said, to a roar of cheers. "We're not going to let it happen. They're not going to Mexico. They're not going anywhere else.
Like many Pennsylvania cities, Altoona has been on a slow decline for decades. Factories have closed, industry has left, and "The Railroad City" is in Act 47, the state's program for distressed cities.
Trump gave the crowd a clear culprit for this decline: the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, negotiated by President George H.W. Bush and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993.
Keystone Crossroads is a statewide public media initiative reporting on the challenges facing Pennsylvania's cities. WPSU is a participating station.
