WASHINGTON — With parents James and Maryan McCormick looking on from the Senate gallery, Sen. David McCormick (R-PA) took the oath of office with the family Bible on Friday as Pennsylvania’s junior U.S. senator.
Flanked by his wife, Dina Powell, McCormick told the Washington Examiner how grateful he was and stressed his commitment to upholding his promise to his constituents to serve Pennsylvania with honor “and remain connected to the needs of the people of the commonwealth.”
McCormick said he believed that to be successful in his role, he should spend most of his time outside of Washington.
“I plan on governing and serving much in the way I campaigned, by showing up across the state, especially in the places that often get overlooked, and listening to the needs of Pennsylvanians,” he said.
McCormick said one of the pitfalls people face when they get elected to higher office is that they believe the center of the world is Washington.
“I see it happen all of the time, and that is not our job,” he said. “Our job is to serve our constituents at home.”
It was a criticism that a series of senators from Pennsylvania, including Democrats Harris Wofford and Bob Casey Jr., all struggled with. In November 2024, McCormick defeated Casey, a three-term Democratic incumbent from Scranton, Pennsylvania, who had held several statewide offices since 1996. McCormick said the problem of elected officials losing touch is not unique to Pennsylvania.
“People go to Washington, and they lose sight of the folks and the reasons they were sent there,” McCormick said. “I think it is something you have to be super diligent about. I said this over and over again on the campaign trail that I want to be a senator like the way I campaigned, which is to be across our commonwealth and to always have a sense for what is on the minds of Pennsylvanians. I view the governing as an extension of how I ran for office, which was staying connected to people where they are.”
McCormick said it is also important to stay in constant contact with the people who run the counties in the state.
“Those relationships are very important because these are the people who are on the front lines in the state and know what is needed in their local communities,” McCormick said.
The other critically important thing McCormick said was to make sure constituent services are handled with care and promptness.
“People rely on these offices to make sure they are getting their Social Security checks, that the veterans’ services are met, and all of the other aspects of the federal government are handled professionally and quickly,” McCormick said. “I think that is core to being successful.”
McCormick, along with neighboring Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) and Sen.-elect Jim Justice (R-WV), was part of the wave of Republicans who defeated Democrats to usher in a majority for the GOP.
McCormick, who was born in “Little Washington” in southwestern Pennsylvania, spent his formative years in Bloomsburg, a small college town about 20 miles west of Wilkes-Barre. His prowess on the wrestling mat and in academics led him to an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy, which in turn led to him earning a Bronze Star for his service as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division in the first Iraq War.
He returned to live in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh in the fall of 2021, blocks from where he lived for over a decade as the CEO of the FreeMarkets industrial services company before heading to Washington, D.C., to serve in President George W. Bush’s administration in 2006.
McCormick has been appointed to several key Senate committees, including Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Energy and Natural Resources; Foreign Relations; the Special Committee on Aging; and the Joint Economic Committee.
McCormick’s win marks the first time in modern Pennsylvania history that both senators call Allegheny County home. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), a Braddock Democrat who won his seat in 2022, also lives in Allegheny County. Pennsylvania is one of only four states to have a partisan split in its Senate delegation, along with Maine, Wisconsin, and, technically, Vermont.
McCormick said he and Fetterman met before Christmas.
“It was a very productive meeting, and I think we can both work together on things like building a strong manufacturing base here in Pennsylvania, and I think there is a huge opportunity to collaborate on things like that,” he said.
McCormick said his priorities heading into the new Congress are to secure the U.S. border, increase Pennsylvania’s energy production, take on the fentanyl crisis in tangible ways, combat the rising costs that are hurting regular people, and strengthen our national security.
McCormick, whose father was named the youngest president of a state college at the age of 34, grew up working on the family Christmas tree farm with his younger brother, Doug, which was just outside of town. A visit to the family farm in January 2024 showed that the elder McCormick thought his boys did OK: There was a “Wall of Doug” on one side of the working farm’s office and a “Wall of Dave” on the other, with framed clippings of both boys’ achievements in high school, at West Point, and into their adulthood.
A year ago, McCormick sat at the Bloomsburg Diner across from the man who he said pushed him to the brink of mental and physical limits, his former wrestling coach, Keith Taylor. At that diner, Taylor told him he needed to bring all of that effort if he wanted to win the Senate seat.
McCormick won, but he says he needs to bring all of that with him every day as a senator.
“That is what I promised Pennsylvania voters and that is what I will give them,” he said.
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McCormick said he is looking forward to his first Pennsylvania Farm Show visit as a senator this week.
“That event shows the heart of what makes our state great.”