Steve Kornacki

About

Steve Kornacki is a political journalist, pundit and television presenter best known for his work as a map and data expert during MSNBC's election coverage. Since the 2014 United States midterm elections and particularly the 2020 United States Presidential Election, Kornacki has become a darling of social media, with many praising his understandable explanations of tight and oftentimes confusing elections across America.

History

Kornacki was born on August 22nd, 1979, and currently resides in New York City.^[1] After spending the 2000s primarily as a political journalist, he began appearing on national television in 2012, when he co-hosted MSNBC's The Cycle.^[2] In 2014, he became MSNBC's election night map correspondent,^[3] the role that earned him the most fame over the following decade.

Kornacki's star began rising particularly during the 2020 United States Presidential Election, particularly among left-leaning viewers of MSNBC. The election infamously dragged on for days following election night as ballots were slowly counted among different parts of the country. During the network's multi-day coverage, Kornacki provided explanations of why the process was taking so long, where votes still had to be counted, and which way they would likely swing (shown below).

As the election was highly stressful for many viewers, Kornacki was praised for his knowledgeable, nerdy, entertaining and calming presence in the week following Election Night.^[3] His coverage led him to being named one of People's "Sexiest Men Alive"^[4] in 2020, and he was given a role in NBC's sports coverage as a data analyst in the following two years.

Online Presence

Kornacki's performance in the 2020 election coverage led to him being praised on social media. Kornacki earned the nickname "Map Daddy"^[5] and was the subject of Election Analyst Fancams during the election coverage (example shown below).

Kornacki's khakis became the subject of fascination on social media and people were impressed by his impressive ability to continue the map analysis work as the days dragged on (examples shown below).^[6][7]

Celebration of Kornacki began anew with the 2022 midterm elections. For example, Twitter user @jowrotethis^[8] posted, "My crush on Steve Kornacki is the most confusing in all my years because he only comes to me in times of extreme anxiety and crisis," gaining over 1,900 retweets and 27,000 likes (shown below, left). User @keelyflaherty^[9] joked, "kornacki the korsnacki is korbacki," gaining over 280 retweets and 4,500 likes (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References