For Wolf, spotlight comes with a mission: Help Clinton win Pa.

On the floor of the Democratic National Convention, Gov. Wolf took the microphone Tuesday and played a small part in writing the history books for the first woman to cinch a major party nomination for president.

Breaking into a smile during the delegate roll call, Wolf told the crowd: "I am honored to announce that Pennsylvania awards 126 votes to the next president of the United States, Hillary Clinton."

The question now becomes: Can he help deliver the state for Clinton in November?

For the last 20 months, the York businessman-turned-neophyte politician has spent much of his tenure battling Republicans in Harrisburg over the state budget.

Now, for the first time since taking office in 2015, Wolf will get to test his political muscle on a grander stage. Pennsylvania is indisputably a marquee battleground in Clinton's contest against Republican Donald Trump - and Wolf is its most prominent and influential Democrat.

"By virtue of his title, he is the head of the party in the state, and will be essential in the organizational efforts and work to be done on behalf of electing Hillary Clinton," said Chris Borick, political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown. "The really good question is: How equipped is he to do that?"

A glimpse could come this week.

During the Democratic National Convention, the 67-year-old slightly wonkish governor - the one with an MIT doctorate in political science and just one campaign to his resume - has stepped outside his normal comfort zone.

He's run an endless circuit of receptions and gatherings, hosted a media tour of the city and greeted President Obama at the airport Wednesday night.

On Thursday evening, he'll get a rare national spotlight: a speech from the convention floor before Clinton takes the stage to accept her party's nomination.

There, his aides say, Wolf is expected to draw on his background as an employer who instituted profit-sharing with employees at his kitchen-cabinet company in York to talk about economic equality and fairness - a platform he says he and Clinton share.

"Those are issues that I've talked about for a long time," he said during a DNC breakfast earlier this week.

Asked how he views his role over the next four months in helping deliver Pennsylvania votes, Wolf said: "Whatever she needs me to."

Though Wolf won office two years ago with a well-oiled and partially self-financed campaign that heavily relied on a media-savvy strategy, he is not used to an intense spotlight. And he has not spent much time dabbling in other candidates' races, let alone cultivating a national profile. It is not uncommon for him to downplay his political title and introduce himself as "Tom from York," his aides say.

That makes him a far cry from his predecessor, Ed Rendell, a longtime Clinton surrogate who as Philadelphia mayor and Pennsylvania governor was infamous for relishing the political spotlight and policy stump.

State Democratic chairman Marcel Groen said Wolf may have a more understated style than Rendell, but that sitting governors always play a significant role in helping the party ticket.

Giving speeches at campaign stops and headlining fundraisers are ways for Wolf to leave his mark, he and others said.

"There is an opportunity there - it's up to him how much he wants to seize it," said political analyst and pollster G. Terry Madonna of Franklin and Marshall College.

If there is any doubt about Pennsylvania's status as a key swing state, consider this: The convention is not over, yet Clinton has already planned campaign stops in the state on Friday as part of a three-day bus tour that will also take her to Ohio.

And though the state has voted for a Democrat in every presidential election since 1992, pundits say Trump will push hard to win over the state's older and largely white blue-collar voters, who are receptive to his campaign slogan of "Make America Great Again."

Trump continued that Wednesday with a town hall in Scranton, where he pledged to bring back jobs.

Wolf aides say privately that the governor still has to govern - and that he is looking forward to a special session of the state legislature on battling what he has called the state's opioid addiction crisis.

But there will be time, at least, for him to break away for campaigning. Legislators, most of whom are also facing reelection, so far appear to have few session days scheduled for the fall.

And, said Groen, Wolf is popular. Public polls have shown that Wolf's approval ratings have dropped since he took office, but internal polling shows a majority of Pennsylvanians still give him a favorable grade.

"He's a great campaigner and has a strong voice," former Philadelphia Mayor Mike Nutter said. "And he is highly respected."

He added: "Everyone has a role to play in this . . . it's not one person."

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