He made his money on Wall Street, but it was his prominent role in restructuring General Motors that catapulted Harry Wilson into government and politics.

Now he’s running for state comptroller.

Wilson, a political newcomer, was in town Monday to receive the endorsement of Erie County Republicans but spent part of his day off the campaign trail at GM’s Town of Tonawanda engine plant.

“GM went through a near-death experience last year,” Wilson said after his visit to the plant. “That’s the experience New York State is going to face unless we bite the bullet now.”

Wilson, 38, may be little-known politically at this point, but Republicans say his background on Wall Street and in Washington, D. C., makes him ideal to serve as New York’s chief auditor and investment adviser.

A former hedge fund manager who retired at age 36, Wilson is the only declared Republican candidate in what party leaders are promising will be a hard-fought effort to unseat Democratic incumbent Thomas P. DiNapoli.

“Harry Wilson brings a lifetime of the right credentials for this office,” said County Republican Chairman Nicholas A. Langworthy. “To have someone of his experience and pedigree would serve the taxpayers of New York State well.”

Wilson lives in Scarsdale, but he’s a native of upstate. He grew up in Johnstown, about an hour west of Albany, where his father was employed as a bartender and his mother as a factory worker. He later earned degrees at Harvard University and Harvard Business School.

From there, he went to Wall Street, where he gained a reputation for restructuring distressed companies as a partner in a hedge fund, Silver Point Capital.

It was that aspect of his resume that led Wilson to Steven L. Rattner, head of President Obama’s auto industry task force.

Almost overnight, Wilson was brought on board and, over the the next several months, became what the Wall Street Journal called the “U. S. field general” in the struggle to save the auto industry.

Wilson is fond of comparing GM to New York State, suggesting that both are former giants who took their success for granted.

“In both cases, they squandered their advantages, suffered through bad management and ultimately lost their way,” Wilson said Monday.

The Republican thinks his experience as an investor who helped rescue troubled companies makes him uniquely qualified to help New York recover from its fiscal crisis.

“I’ve never presumed an outcome,” Wilson said when asked for details of what he would do as state comptroller, but “I would attack the big buckets of spending.”

Wilson also promised, if elected, to “professionalize” New York’s $129 billion pension fund as part of a larger effort to maximize its benefits.