By Donald Gilpin

Steve Kornacki, NBC News and MSNBC national political correspondent, will be part of a conversation at the Princeton Public Library (PPL) on Thursday, July 11, at 7 p.m. A celebrity on election nights with his magic board, a large interactive screen that presents election data at his command, Kornacki is a timely visitor to Princeton at this particularly volatile juncture in U.S. politics.

Kornacki will be talking with John Mooney, founding editor of NJ Spotlight, in the hour-long event hosted by Ingrid Reed, policy analyst and former director of the New Jersey Project at Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute of Politics, who worked with and mentored Kornacki when he spent three years in New Jersey reporting on state politics for a website and co-hosting a weekly show on News 12 New Jersey.

“Steve has visited the Princeton Public Library for the past few years and has drawn a large crowd each time,” Reed wrote in an email. “I expect him to do that again because he is an insightful person whose career began in New Jersey, and he can provide unique perspectives on our state in relation to national issues.”

At press time Kornacki and the other participants had decided that the conversation would focus on “the 2024 election year issues as related to New Jersey with Steve’s national perspective as well,” but they had not narrowed down the specific topics.

Presumably the agenda will include the troubled Democratic Party and its dilemma in the face of President Biden’s determination to continue his campaign, as well as New Jersey’s race for U.S. Senate between Democrat Andy Kim, Republican Curtis Bashaw, and, as long as he continues to run despite several federal indictments, Independent Bob Menendez.

In posts on X (formerly Twitter), Kornacki noted on July 2, “There’d be no real parallel for Biden exiting at this point. He’s the presumptive WH nominee (meaning: won needed delegates in primaries) and no one in that position has withdrawn in the modern era. For that matter, no major party WH nominee has ever dropped out.”

He went on to mention, “Comparisons would be made to LBJ in ’68, but he never formally entered the race; just announced that he wouldn’t run.”

Kornacki, who provides real-time analysis of voting patterns, exit polls, and electoral data for MSNBC’s election coverage, was the host of “Up with Steve Kornacki” and co-host of MSNBC’s The Cycle.

He also wrote for the New York Observer, covered Congress for Roll Call, and has written for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post, Boston Globe, Daily Beast, and Capital New York.

Kornacki is the author of The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism and the host of “The Revolution,” a podcast series about the rise of Newt Gingrich.

He grew up in Groton, Mass., and graduated from Boston University.

Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. for Thursday’s 7 p.m. event, and it will also be live-streamed. Previous Kornacki visits to PPL have reportedly been standing-room only. The conversation is presented in partnership with Princeton Adult School. Visit princetonlibrary.org for more information.