Scott Colom wins Mississippi Senate seat
The 43-year-old prosecutor defeated incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith after a multi-day ballot count, becoming the state's first Black senator since Reconstruction.
By Leah Thompson ·
The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday.
Scott Colom defeated incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in the U.S. Senate contest for Mississippi. The victory ends a long political drought for the state, which has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1947. Colom is the first Black senator from Mississippi since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.
The result followed several days of processing absentee and provisional ballots, which local officials call affidavit ballots. Hyde-Smith, 67, conceded in a two-minute video posted online. She said she respected the decision of Mississippi voters and congratulated Colom on the responsibility ahead. A spokesman for the senator confirmed she called Colom to offer congratulations before the video went public.
Colom, a 43-year-old local prosecutor, capitalized on the state's large Black population and voter discontent with the economy. He positioned himself as a candidate who listens to residents regardless of their background. "They actually deserve a senator that will listen to them, that actually cares about what they think, actually cares about what they're going through," Colom said during the closing stretch of the campaign.
National Democrats celebrated the win as part of a broader shift in the South. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York posted that Colom ran the campaign of a lifetime and re-imagined what is possible for Democrats in the region. Former President Bill Clinton, who campaigned with Colom days before the election, said on social media that Colom won because he believed in the promise of the state's people.
The race drew national attention late in the cycle. Black senators Raphael Warnock and Angela Alsobrooks urged donors to view Mississippi as winnable. Colom's campaign gained momentum after he produced a widely circulated 30-second ad. The spot depicted voters saying they would "pick another senator instead" after Hyde-Smith suggested consumers could choose other proteins to avoid high beef prices.
Hyde-Smith had blocked Colom's 2022 judicial nomination to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. At the time, she invoked the Senate tradition of blocking home-state judicial nominees. Colom said his campaign was not about revenge for that move. He focused instead on criticizing Hyde-Smith's influence in Washington and Trump's policies on tariffs and the Iran war, which he argued hurt Mississippi farmers.
Vera Finley, a supporter who arrived early to the victory party in Jackson, said she was celebrating her parents and grandparents. She noted that both her parents picked cotton and her great-grandmother was sold there as a slave. "I am so excited to be on this side of history," Finley said. NAACP President Derrick Johnson said voters made history by refusing to be intimidated or counted out.
