Senator-elect Dave McCormick was undoubtedly the star of this year’s Pennsylvania Society event — the state’s annual weekend where political elites flock to Manhattan for lavish cocktail parties and receptions.
As he worked his way through a packed schedule of more than a dozen events starting Thursday, the soon-to-be-sworn-in Republican was surrounded by excited Republicans. Almost equally, he was warmly greeted by Democrats, eager to forge a new relationship with Pennsylvania’s next junior senator.
He was the most popular guy in the room.
At a reception Friday afternoon hosted by Coldspark, the Pittsburgh-based GOP consulting group that managed McCormick’s campaign, attendees celebrated her victory. After he made a brief appearance, word quickly spread around the back of the small Irish pub that a new senator had arrived.
Later that evening, lottery company Scientific Games and law firm Polsinelli hosted a private party in honor of McCormick and his wife, Dina, a former Trump administration official.
And when McCormick arrived at Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room for a reception hosted by Duane Morris’ lobbying firm, a crowd of well-wishers quickly emerged. McCormick told reporters he wouldn’t be answering questions that night, but said his holiday weekend was going “so far, so well.”
While McCormick celebrated, Casey also spent time in New York in a more reflective mood.
Both spoke Saturday morning at the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association’s annual biannual luncheon at the ornate Metropolitan Club near Central Park. The candidates sat down with each other, and it was the first time they had spoken since Casey called McCormick last month to concede razor-thin race dates for the statewide recount.
The speeches themselves were informal and closed to reporters, but Casey and McCormick each spoke to The Inquirer afterward.
In McCormick’s campaign prepared remarks, the senator-elect envisioned what Pennsylvania might look like at the end of his first term — in theory lower crime, better schools, more jobs and a Steelers-Eagles Super Bowl.
“We were just doing a thought experiment of what success would feel like, what it would look like (in Pennsylvania), McCormick said in an interview. “Hopefully I’m a big part of it, but I’m just one part.”
In a speech at the PMA luncheon, a coveted event, McCormick promised to be a strong, bipartisan voice working toward that goal.
“That is the future we dream of for our beloved Pennsylvania. But whether we get there or not depends on what we do — the people in this room and the leaders across Pennsylvania,” he said, according to his prepared remarks.
Casey, for her part, told The Inquirer that she warned McCormick that even though she was doing a good job, she might not like the feelings. But for most of the speech, Casey said, he reflected on his 18-year Senate career and roughly three decades in public service.
He recounted one of his first trips to the Pennsylvania Society and PMA luncheon in 1994, when he was preparing to become an auditor for the first time. He arrived with his father, the late Gov. Bob Casey, in what would have been one of the elder Casey’s last Pennsylvania Society trips.
“I remember how excited I was at that moment. And now I’m here, 30 years to be exact, and I’m at the other end of it,” he said.
While Casey said he’s not yet sure what’s next for him, he said it wouldn’t be his last Pennsylvania Society. But he was looking forward to it in the future when he no longer has the pressures of being a US Senator.
“It’s going to be a little easier. I’ll have a little more manageable schedule,” he said. “I’ve been coming here for many years and I’ve been thinking I’d really like to go see a play and I can’t do it. Now I can.”
Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.