In the swirling chaos of cable news’ election coverage, there has been one steady, khaki-clad port in the storm to help guide us through exit polls, electoral college maps, and how exactly votes are being counted in Arizona’s Maricopa County. I’m talking, of course, about MSNBC’s national political correspondent Steve Kornacki.
This is Kornacki’s fourth election cycle in front of the “Big Board,” and over the past few years, he’s developed a loyal following of viewers who rely on him to help make sense of the jumble that is the U.S. electoral map. With his rolled-up shirtsleeves and slightly rumpled Gap khakis, he has the energy of a harried college professor trying to effectively convey a vast amount of information to his slack-jawed audience in as little time as possible. As he zooms in and out of various states and counties on the map, his speech is an uninterrupted stream of statistics and real-time analysis. He told GQ recently that, on election days, he subsists almost exclusively on Diet Coke, and as he points and jabs at the screen, you can almost see little jets of caffeine steaming out of his ears.
It’s soothing, amid the constant churn of breaking news and hot takes, to watch an informed and competent numbers guy help explain what’s going on, and on Twitter, this has translated into enthusiasm, admiration, and of course, horniness.
Kornacki himself hasn’t been able to revel in his star status lately, as he’s spent so many uninterrupted hours in front of his Big Board and only took a brief break this morning at the urging of his colleagues. As MSNBC’s Ali Velshi told anchor Ari Melber: “We have removed him forcibly from the building … He’s in a room with pillows, blankets, and warm milk.”
