Candidate profile: Katie McGinty

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Katie McGinty is running for the Democratic nomination for governor of Pennsylvania, but she is in a tough spot in this race.

McGinty is polling last and in the single digits.

But she is constant in her smiles and handshakes, insisting the vote is prime for an upset.

"Listen, when I talk to voters about this, we still have a whole lot of people who are just now starting to focus on this race. 45% haven't made up their mind at all," McGinty said.

She hopes to connect with those undecideds with her story:

McGinty is a daughter of Northeast Philadelphia, the ninth of 10 kids raised by a policeman and a restaurant hostess.

She went on to serve in the Clinton White House as an advisor on the environment.

Then as an appointee in Harrisburg, where she says she focused on going green and making green.

"So when I was Secretary of Environmental Protection here, we won all kinds of awards for environmental leadership. But, I was also able to bring 3,000 new jobs to Pennsylvania in cutting-edge industries like wind energy, solar energy, energy efficient buildings," said McGinty.

McGinty says her time in Harrisburg taught her how to get opponents to come together, a skill she'd use to get both sides on board with moves to create jobs and restore funding to education.

She says that would make Pennsylvania an easy sell as a place for business to consider and families to stay.

"I would go hard after fighting for every job that is here, but then attracting new companies on the basis of our great workforce, our natural resources and our academic institutions," she said.

Primary Day in Pennsylvania is Tuesday, May 20th.