Poverty is not evenly distributed across the American landscape. At the county level of aggregation, poverty is overwhelmingly a rural problem, with the most remote rural places at the greatest disadvantage. 1 Although research has shown that “place matters” in poverty outcomes and policy impacts, most antipoverty policy in the U.S. is essentially place-blind, not considering how differences among places in economic or social conditions might affect policy outcomes. This paper makes the case that state policy should give renewed attention to locality-based job creation and community capacity building, while maintaining and expanding policy innovations that make work pay, provide work supports and build worker productivity.