In this June 6, 2019, photo, Vice President Mike Pence meets with attendees at JLS Automation in York, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

YORK, Pa. (AP) — A group of Pennsylvania manufacturers surrounded Mike Pence as he offered his standard greeting from President Donald Trump. The response was underwhelming.

“When I told him I was in the Keystone State, I think he sounded just a little bit jealous,” the vice president said to a few audible groans and tepid applause.

But when Pence turned to his assignment for the trip last week to York, Pennsylvania — selling the administration’s new trade deal with Mexico and Canada — the group warmed up. By the time he got to the part about calling on Congress to pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement , his audience cheered him on.

Pence is on a quiet mission to advance the administration’s top legislative priority for the year — the troubled trade deal — and, with it, just maybe hold together the fraying Republican coalition ahead of the next one. As Trump wagers on a trade war with China and threats of another with Mexico, Pence has been traveling the country trying to build support for a free-trade deal. While his boss promotes the power of tariffs, Pence has been in places like Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Lebanon, Indiana, speaking about the benefits of lowering them.