Mississippi and Alaska Senate Races Remain Too Close to Call Amid Ongoing Ballot Count

Mississippi and Alaska Senate races are still undecided as officials continue counting absentee and provisional ballots. In Mississippi, Democratic nominee Scott Colom holds a narrow lead of roughly 1,000 votes over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, according to the state secretary of state, with about 3,600 mail ballots and an unknown number of affidavit ballots still pending. The state lacks an automatic recount mechanism, so any challenge would require a court order. Colom urged voters to submit required documentation for pending ballots and pledged to protect the election process.

"We have hundreds of volunteers, we’ve got local lawyers that are going to be at the county meetings in each county. We will protect the process of this election, we will protect the integrity of this election," Colom said at a news conference.

In Alaska, Democratic candidate Mary Peltola leads incumbent Republican Senator Daniel S. Sullivan by fewer than 1,000 votes, with a quarter of expected votes still uncounted. Most of the outstanding ballots are mail-in votes, which historically favor Democrats, but the final outcome will depend on a ranked-choice tabulation scheduled for Nov. 18 if no candidate reaches the 50 percent threshold in the first round. Analysis shows that over a third of voters who selected third-party candidates as their first choice did not rank additional candidates, potentially limiting their impact in later rounds.

Both races are part of a broader midterm picture in which Democrats are on track for a 50-seat majority in the House, while Republicans face internal challenges and leadership contests. Speaker Mike Johnson announced he will not seek the Republican conference chairmanship, opening a contest between Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan. Vice President JD Vance attributed Republican losses to the war in Iran, a view partially echoed by President Trump.

"The reason we lost is the war," Vance wrote on social media.

"If I had to do it again, I’d have to do it again," Trump said, describing Vance’s assessment as "largely true."

The tight margins in Mississippi and Alaska underscore the significance of remaining absentee and provisional ballots in determining the final composition of the Senate.