Rick Farmer works in Newberry, South Carolina, as the county's economic development officer.

So tell us about Newberry.

Sure. First of all, it's a great little community. The city's motto is the city of friendly folks.

It is, in a lot of ways, it's similar to other small South Carolina. The city's motto is the city of friendly folks.

It is, in a lot of ways, it's similar to other small South Carolina towns, or small cities, actually.

Populations about 10,000.

Are there grumpy folks in Newbury?

Oh, sure.

They're everywhere.

Back in 2016, Rick got some bad news.

I remember like it was yesterday.

April of 2016, I got a phone call.

Hey, Rick, did you hear the news?

And the news was our local Caterpillar plant was closing.

Caterpillar, the iconic American manufacturer of construction equipment.

It was leaving its factory in Newberry, and that meant losing over 300 jobs.

When you first heard that news that they were moving out, how would you describe it?

Well, I knew there would be a lot of concern because, again, it was our number one brand. It was the most recognized brand

that was here in Newbury County. They were some of the best jobs in the community. And I remember

standing on the floor of Community Hall explaining to the Rotary Club why this is not the end of the world.

But at the same time, I just wondered how much of that I really believed and how much of that I was just trying to keep folks from panicking.

But Newberry was about to get an assist from a presidential hopeful who was promising to revitalize

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