At Pa. Society, Dave McCormick is the most popular person in the room

Sen.-elect Dave McCormick was undoubtedly the star of this year’s Pennsylvania Society event — the state’s annual weekend of political elites’ swarming Manhattan for swanky cocktail parties and receptions.

As he worked through a packed schedule of more than a dozen events starting Thursday, the soon-to-be-sworn-in Republican was surrounded by Republicans ecstatic McCormick had ousted three-term U.S. Sen. Bob Casey. In nearly equal measure, he was greeted warmly by Democrats eager to form a new relationship with Pennsylvania’s next junior senator.

He was the most popular guy in the room.

At a Friday afternoon reception hosted by Coldspark, the Pittsburgh-based GOP consulting group that ran McCormick’s campaign, attendees were celebrating his win. When he made a brief appearance, news quickly traveled to the back of the small Irish pub that the 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 the Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room for a reception hosted by the Duane Morris law firm and its lobbying arm Duane Morris Government Strategies, a crowd of well-wishers quickly formed. McCormick told reporters he wouldn’t be answering questions that night but said his celebratory weekend was going “so far, so good.”

As 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 bipartisan luncheon at the ornate Metropolitan Club near Central Park. The candidates were seated with each other, and it was the first time they had spoken since Casey called McCormick last month to concede the razor-thin race days into a statewide recount.

The speeches themselves were off-the-record and closed to reporters, but Casey and McCormick each spoke to The Inquirer afterward.

In prepared remarks provided by McCormick’s campaign, the senator-elect imagined what Pennsylvania might look like at the end of his first term — theorizing lower crime rates, improved schools, more jobs, and a Steelers-Eagles Super Bowl.

“We just did a thought experiment of what success would feel like, what would it look like [for Pennsylvania],” McCormick said in an interview. “Hopefully I’ll be an important part of that, but I’m just one part.”

In his speech to the PMA luncheon, a coveted opportunity, McCormick pledged to be a strong, bipartisan voice aiming for that goal.

“It’s 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 leaders across Pennsylvania,” he said, according to his prepared remarks.

Casey, for his part, told The Inquirer he warned McCormick that while he was taking a great job, he might not like the hours. But for much 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 Pennsylvania Society and the PMA luncheon in 1994, when he was preparing for his first run for auditor general. 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 eager I was at that moment. And now here I am, 30 years exactly, and I’m at the other end of it,” he said.

While Casey said he isn’t sure yet what’s next for him, he said it wouldn’t be his last Pennsylvania Society. But he was looking forward to the future, when he’ll no longer have the pressures of a U.S. senator.

“It’ll just be a little easier. I’ll have a little more manageable schedule,” he said. “A lot of years I’ve come up here, and I’ve thought I would really like to go see a play and I can’t do that. Now I can.”

Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.