Mississippi Senate race stays razor-thin as Colom edges Hyde-Smith while ballots are still being counted
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Democrat Scott Colom maintains a narrow lead over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi, as the final provisional-ballot review drags on and the two campaigns take sharply different approaches after Election Day.
Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race remains too close to call, with Democrat Scott Colom leading incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by roughly 2,500 votes, a margin that could still be shaped by thousands of provisional ballots under review. Since Election Day, Colom has been out in the state making his case, holding at least eight public events that included university visits, a stop at a Black-owned bookshop, and an appearance at a senior-citizen center, while also giving multiple media interviews. Hyde-Smith, by contrast, has kept her public presence largely to posts on X, including a Bible verse about hope, and has not appeared in public since leaving her election-night watch party outside Jackson.
"Ultimately, at some point, the senator needs to speak out. Where is Cindy Hyde-Smith? We want to hear from her. She needs to answer questions. What is her path to victory? She doesn’t have one," Colom told reporters at the senior-citizen facility.
Hyde-Smith’s campaign manager Jake Monssen said the senator and her team are working "around the clock across Mississippi to protect the integrity of this election and to ensure every legal vote is counted." The senator is expected to travel to Washington on Monday when the Senate reconvenes after a six-week recess.
If Colom wins, he would become Mississippi’s first Democratic senator in nearly four decades and the state’s first Black senator since the Reconstruction era. The campaign contrast reflects a wider national pattern in which some Republican incumbents in states long treated as safe have suddenly found themselves in tighter contests after offering little post-election outreach.
Local voters voiced frustration with Hyde-Smith’s absence. One Brookhaven resident, who asked not to be named, said he would have liked to see more campaign activity and advertising from the incumbent. Another Mississippi voter said Democratic turnout appeared stronger than Republican turnout in the current cycle.
The race has also drawn financial attention. Late in October, the Senate Leadership Fund reserved about $160,000 for the state after Democrats announced roughly $1 million in advertising. Mississippi GOP Chair Michael Hurst said the party has deployed more than 50 volunteer attorneys and observers to monitor the ballot-review process.
Both campaigns are preparing for possible legal challenges as the final vote count proceeds.