McGinty Forced to Explain ‘First in Family’ College Claim
Records show Senate hopeful's brother graduated college before she did
Pennsylvania Senate candidate Katie McGinty said Thursday that she wasn’t counting her brother when she claimed that she was the first in her family to “go to college” because he went to community college before attending a four-year school.
The comments from McGinty came after media reports that her campaign trail story — a key to her attempt to connect with blue collar voters — wasn’t true.
McGinty’s older brother John received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from La Salle and Temple universities before his sister started attending St. Joseph’s University in 1981, Buzzfeed reported. McGinty’s campaign released a statement after the story broke saying that her brother’s college experience wasn’t relevant to her claim because he had attended community college first, a distinction John McGinty backed up.
“The way that Katie and our family have always talked about our experience is she was the first of the 10 McGinty kids to attend and graduate from a four-year college, straight out of high school,” he said.
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