Mississippi, one of the most conservative states in the country, is projected to send a Democrat to the Senate, ending a nail-biter of a race that stretched well past Election Day.
Scott Colom’s defeat of Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is one of the biggest upsets from the midterms, underscoring how far Democrats were able to extend their power in a brutal political climate for Republicans. Colom, a local district attorney, emerged as a competitive candidate in the final stretch of the race — and he only narrowly pulled it off.
Election Day ended with only a handful of ballots separating Colom and Hyde-Smith. The race was finally called after more than a week of vote counting on Wednesday, mostly bolstered by the tabulation of affidavit ballots.
As ballots slowly trickled in, Colom criticized what he sees as national punditry hurting Democrats’ odds in Southern states. On Nov. 9, he lambasted the Cook Political Report on social media for underestimating his campaign’s strength in its projections, something that he said made it “much more difficult to fundraise.”
Trending
Hyde-Smith, on the other hand, largely stayed out of public view as the tally was finalized, though on Tuesday at the Capitol, she continued to project confidence.
Shortly after The Associated Press called the race, the senator conceded in a video, congratulating Colom and saying, “While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters.”
Both parties responded to the Election Day cliffhanger with force. Top Democratic leaders sent officials with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to Mississippi to help with the vote count. Republicans responded on Nov. 5 by sending a letter to Mississippi’s 82 counties, demanding that any provisional ballots, which require the eligibility of the voter to be independently verified by an elections official, be preserved.
Mississippi does not have a law that would automatically trigger a recount or runoff, and while an election itself cannot be challenged, candidates can petition to exclude specific ballots from the tabulation if there is a legal basis to do so.
Colom’s campaign said the letter was a “desperate” move by Republicans staring down another loss. Mike Hurst, the chair of the Mississippi Republican Party, said in a press conference Thursday that the effort would ensure “that there is nothing untoward done.”
Colom’s candidacy was partially made possible by Hyde-Smith, who in 2023 blocked Colom’s nomination to a lifetime federal judgeship by withholding her blue slip, a form sent by the Senate Judiciary Committee to senators in an appointee’s home state that can work as a veto if not returned.
Colom is set to be the state’s first Democratic senator in nearly four decades, and will be the first Black senator elected by Mississippi since the Reconstruction era. He is one of several candidates who ran in states that were considered longshots for flipping. Democrats had already claimed control of the Senate through other unexpected wins in states including Texas, South Carolina and Kansas.
Both parties began pumping money into Mississippi late in the race.
The Democratic Senate Majority PAC put more than $1 million into ads in October’s final weeks, which prompted a seven-figure ad buy from Senate Republicans’ top super PAC. The narrowing race also triggered a flood of high-profile surrogates for both parties — including President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Kamala Harris — to hold rallies in the state. Former President Barack Obama also cut an ad in support of Colom.
Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock raised half a million dollars for Colom’s campaign committee, Politico reported, and he urged donors to “resist the Democratic tendency to ignore the South.” Audio obtained by The Washington Sun showed that as recently as April, donors laughed when Warnock suggested the state could flip.
Like Democrats across the country, Colom latched onto an affordability message while campaigning. He labeled his opponent “Cindy High Prices” and hammered her for a comment made during a TV appearance in which Hyde-Smith responded to a question about the rising cost of beef by reminding voters, “you have so many proteins to choose from.”
Colom turned the sound bite into an advertisement, showing a handful of incredulous voters saying they’d “rather pick another senator.”
Colom argued his whole campaign that Mississippi was in play, and he urged national Democrats to invest in the state.
“We’ve not won in Mississippi because we’re not trying,” he told The Sun in October. “It’s just shameful that we haven’t been trying.”
This story was updated to include Hyde-Smith’s concession statement.
Author
Contributor
