“He’s my plus-one!” said Pete Kalamoutsos, owner of the music venue Echostage. Within moments, it was determined that Tony P should, in fact, be on the list. He was given a wristband and whisked inside the Organization of American States, immediately encircled by a throng of selfie-seekers.
The White House correspondents’ dinner weekend may be old and past its prime — but it’s still a hot ticket for young, ambitious people who do business in this company town.
Like Eugene Daniels, Politico White House correspondent and co-author of Playbook, who is the vice president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. Or Annie Wu Henry, the political consultant perhaps best known for running Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman’s TikTok game during his 2022 campaign. Or Tony P, who is hoping to eventually parlay the popularity of his relentlessly wholesome video diaries into an actual TV career.
Promising, then, that he was on the list. The question was: Did Tony P belong on the list? (We’re talking about the proverbial list, here.) Correspondents’ dinner weekend parties have a way of clarifying such things: sorting the insiders from the wannabes, giving the up-and-comers and social climbers their moment in the room with the moneyed old guard, sorting the passersby and looky-loos from those who have something to offer, something to trade.
After a turn on the step-and-repeat with Kalamoutsos, Tony P was whisked upstairs, champagne in hand, to a roped-off VIP area, where he mingled with party doyenne and consultant Tammy Haddad and Axios CEO Jim VandeHei. Eventually, another guest joined the VIP section: former speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan.
Tony P was star-struck. He worked up his courage. He shakes Ryan’s hand.
“I would have voted for you in ’12 if I was old enough,” Tony P says to Ryan, even though Tony P is a Democrat.
A dozen feet away and a foot lower in elevation from that stage, Henry considers this odd yet somehow perfectly matched pairing.
“It’s Paul Ryan and Tony P. That’s the VIP section. And I feel like that’s emblematic of D.C.,” she says.
For Henry, 28, D.C. is a place where she exists in the liminal space between insider and outsider — a “very insular world, like a little bubble,” where she comes once or twice a month for work (and play).
She doesn’t actually live here. But this weekend is important enough that she drove down from Philadelphia armed with a spreadsheet with all 12 events she was going to, with each event’s duration, location and travel time between venues.
“I feel like when I’m in these places I expect to recognize people, … but I don’t,” she says. But that’s okay, because when she walked into the party, people recognized her. A Biden campaign spokeswoman she knew from her work with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Axios reporters, fellow content creators, others who worked in Democratic politics. Even if they don’t know her, they know her social media feeds, and say she does such amazing work.
If you’re getting invited to a bunch of cool parties, embassies, and all that kind of stuff, just remember, it is your job and your title, and your news organization that’s getting invited, and not you, okay?”
It is Friday morning at the White House, and Anita Dunn, a senior Biden adviser, is giving a mock briefing to recipients of the White House Correspondents’ Association scholarships for aspiring journalists. Daniels was acting as something of a camp counselor at the event before hitting the circuit that evening, where he is expected at many parties.
Daniels, 35, will be the first gay Black president of the WHCA when his term begins in July. At 6-foot-3 — and often taller in a heeled pair of Chelsea boots — Daniels cannot help but stand out in a crowd. On nights like this, his mother’s wisdom often comes to mind: You belong in every single room you find yourself in. But Dunn’s words resonated with him: At these events, you are your job. You aren’t you.
Friday is the day for party-hopping, with eight major events happening all across town — the networking Olympics. Daniels began his night at Crooked Media’s party at the downtown restaurant Grazie Nonna. He was wearing a feathered white blazer and white tuxedo pants, and although this ensemble instantly made him one of the best-dressed people at the party, it presented a problem with the…
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