Every Single Thing Steve Kornacki Does on Election Night 2024
by Jen Chaney · VULTUREThere is a great deal of uncertainty looming over this Election Day, but this much is 100 percent beyond doubt: Steve Kornacki, master of the MSNBC Big Board, is prepared for the moment. He has been training for months in the way that election-results reporters train: by breaking down literally any sort of information displayed on a large digital screen. Olympic gymnastics? Kornacki explained that for us. NFL games? Obviously. Election-polling results that will be meaningless in mere hours if they aren’t already? Kornacki was all over that, too, because he has been committed to getting his fingers, voice, and rolled-up shirtsleeves into elite shape for the night we find out whether America gets to remain a democracy. (JK, we probably won’t know that for weeks.)
Because we trust no one more than Kornacki to tell us what’s happening at the polls, and because we need a distracting coping mechanism to get through the evening, Vulture will be liveblogging Kornacki — both what he does on MSNBC and on the Kornacki cam that will stream constantly on Peacock — in this space. Look, you can either stare anxiously at news coverage or you can stare anxiously at news coverage and also this liveblog. America, the choice is clear: When we liveblog, we win.
This is a developing story.
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What’s in Kornacki’s ‘Break Glass’ folder?
Comedy writer and former Buzzfeed podcaster Heben Nigatu raised an extremely interesting question on the platform formerly known as Twitter: What is in Steve Kornacki’s “break glass” folder?
Nigatu posted a screenshot of several folders on Kornacki’s desk labeled mostly for different states: Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin. Then there’s one that simply says “Break Glass,” which implies that its contents only need to be consulted in the event of some sort of Election Night emergency.
What could be in there?
➼ An explanation of what happens if there’s an electoral college tie, information transcribed directly from an episode of Veep?
➼ Explicit instructions about what to do if the Big Board completely stops functioning? (The only thing written on that piece of paper is “riff,”)
➼ A legal document that relieves Kornacki of any personal or legal responsibility if Trump wins the election and he responds by reflexively throwing a hammer through that huge LED screen?
Would love to hear your theories, and please, try to refrain from suggesting that what’s in there is the same thing that was in the briefcase from Pulp Fiction.
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Keep calm and Kornacki on?
Kornacki has been using all the functionality the Big Board has to offer to drill down into sections of Michigan and North Carolina where Harris seems to have a big advantage over Trump. He is spewing so much data with so much authority that I can’t keep track of it all, but every time he bangs on the map of North Carolina, it suggests Harris could take that one. (Maybe??)
What’s most reassuring about Kornacki’s presence is his caffeinated sense of calm. He’s talking very quickly and urgently, as is his tendency, but he is not doing what you or I might be doing, which is yelling: “Oh my God, WHAT???” when we see that Trump has just been projected the winner of South Carolina, or “Hell ya!” when noting that Harris has a strong advantage in the Atlanta area. He is remaining impartial. He’s a numbers man who tells us what the numbers mean without telling us how they should make us feel.
So far, they’re making me feel like I need a glass of wine.
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PeacockZoned
I’m loving Peacock’s new Multiview stream. The feature lets you watch the NBC news stream, the Kornacki cam, and a rotating results board at the same time, and it’s clearly a reprise of the multi-sport viewing product that the streamer rolled out for the Olympics to great effect. (That was, of course, a spin on the NFL’s RedZone channel.) The big reason it works so well in the election context is that it feeds into a sense of perceived control. On a night like this, my proclivity is to try and see as much of the board as possible to feed my anxiety — this is perfect for that.
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Status: Sleeves up and states too close to call
As Kornacki just reported, counties in both North Carolina and Georgia, crucial states in this election, are reporting results incrementally. Our picture of how Americans voted is still partial at best.
What is not too close to call is the state of Kornacki’s stamina. He is doing great. There are zero signs of sweat beading anywhere on his body. His sleeves are rolled up to the elbows, but his tie is still fully tied and knotted. So far, the only sign of anything amiss is the random Magic Marker doodle on the back of one of the many papers in Kornacki’s hands. Technically, this could be a cry for help, but I prefer to think Steve has things so under control that he decided to draw a little comic strip, then got interrupted when North Carolina polls closed.
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The first NBC projections are not Steve Kornacki’s fault
The first set of polls has closed, and NBC has projected presidential winners in three states: Donald Trump in Indiana and Kentucky and Kamala Harris in Vermont. Three other states whose polls have closed — Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia — remain too close to call, but Kornacki says more of that vote will be coming in shortly.
A word of clarification on how NBC News projects its winners. A Decision Desk that is completely isolated from the newsroom determines whether and when to project winners. Kornacki and his colleagues get a heads up when the desk is about to make a call, but they have no role in making that call. If this helps, think of the NBC Decision Desk as Darwin in the Election Night episode of Succession, except operating in an environment with more integrity. Hopefully, no one has gotten wasabi in their eye tonight.
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The pen has entered the mouth
At some point, Steve Kornacki has no choice but to put his pen in his mouth so he can multitask. He reached that point at around 6:40 p.m. ET on Election Night 2024, 20 minutes before the first polls close. I do not know if this is typical or sooner than normal, but I am noting it for posterity.
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‘The word I’m going to use … is ‘Bow-Wow.’’
It is not even 6:30 p.m. ET and Kornacki is already using goofy pneumonic phrases. While identifying some key swing-state counties to keep an eye on throughout the evening, he zeroed in on Wisconsin: “The word I’m going to use all night, if this is a word, is ‘Bow-Wow.’” Pointing to the BOW counties — Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago, where Trump won by slimmer margins in 2016 and 2020 — and the WOW counties — Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington, where Trump won by larger margins in the previous elections — Kornacki notes that any diminishment of Trump support would be a good sign for the Democrats.
Bow-Wow. Say it soft and it’s almost like praying.
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After a slight delay, the Kornacki Cam is now live on Peacock
The Kornacki Cam — a camera trained on Steve Kornacki’s every move for the duration of Election Night — is now live on Peacock. So far, it has shown Steve looking at the papers on his desk, exploring the various counties in Georgia on the Big Board, and pulling his phone out of his pocket. All of this is set to the MSNBC Election Night theme, which I have to say is not doing a lot to ease my nerves.
Live (streaming) television, baby!
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In case you’re wondering how he prepared …
Intelligencer’s Matt Stieb had a pre–Election Night conversation with Kornacki, who said he was “undecided” on his khakis — he obviously voted gray — and had this to say about how he would prepare for the big night:
Yeah, heavy on the nervous, stressed part because I always say that 99 percent of the prep I do will never make the air.
You just got to be ready for that 1 percent. It can be overwhelming trying to anticipate all the different scenarios that could come up that you need to be ready for. So I’ve had a running list for a while now and then every time I think of something else, I’ll write it down. It’s just the list has been getting bigger and bigger, and it takes a lot to check off one item on it. And it’s just to be in position to interpret these results in real time and hopefully say something meaningful and useful about them. It just requires a ton of prep and memorization, and the possibility that I’ll miss something really kind of haunts me.
Having shadowed Kornacki on Super Tuesday 2020, I can confirm the dude is incredibly focused once results start coming in. I’m not sure I ever saw him take a bathroom break.
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Cop a Kornacki khaki
Halloween doesn’t have to be over yet, folks. Our siblings at the Strategist are flagging that Kornacki’s khakis — Korkhakhis? — are currently on sale at the Gap. Specifically, the cut is called the “Gap Modern Khakis in Straight Fit With GapFlex,” and as of this writing, a pair is 32 percent off. Presumably, the man himself doesn’t have to jump on this price cut; you would hope Gap has already comped ten of these for him to burn through over the course of the next few days. Anyway, go grab a pair out of solidarity or for whatever reason at all: to cope, to spice things up, to channel your inner election sicko. If things go well, I’m wearing them to the gym.
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But we won’t be calling him ‘Map Daddy’
I rebuke this.
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Kornacki emerges and he’s not wearing khakis
While the first wave of results won’t start coming in until after six, Steve Kornacki did his first hit on MSNBC to talk about exit polling, which tells us, among other things, that the top three issues on voters’ minds in this election are: the state of democracy (35 percent! A good sign!), the economy (31 percent), and abortion (14 percent).
But the more important takeaway from his initial appearance is that Kornacki has chosen to wear gray pants, not his usual tan, and a gray-and-black striped tie. The combo looks smart and professional, but the colors are a little on the dour side, at least by Kornacki standards. Is this a sign? As Kornacki’s pants go, so goes the nation? No, let’s not go there yet. The night is young, and Steve hasn’t even gotten out his calculator.
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Boston calling
Steve Kornacki is the icing on my alma mater’s election cake. He makes Boston University proud, leading the night’s data crunching in his little pants after a busy election season for BU alums: Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper, 60 Minutes’s Bill Whitaker, and Howard Stern all had influential interviews with Kamala Harris over the past few months. My degree is aging like a fine wine!
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It’s almost Kornacki o’clock
There are two places to watch Steve Kornacki do his map-zooming thing on Election Night. MSNBC’s coverage of the results begins at 6 p.m. ET. Over on Peacock, NBC’s Multiview livestreams, which will include the Steve-focused Kornacki Cam, start at six as well. I’ll be toggling between the two and commenting on the calls as well as the volume of Kornacki’s iced-coffee consumption.