Democratic challenger Scott Colom closes in on Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith as Mississippi’s political order begins to crack
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Colom, a former district attorney, is now within a few thousand votes of ousting Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi, a result that could send the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction to Washington.
Sen. Raphael Warnock spotlighted the Mississippi Senate race as a contest that could reshape a deeply conservative state, underscoring that Mississippi has a larger share of Black voters than Georgia. Democratic candidate Scott Colom, a seventh-generation Mississippian and former district attorney, has directly challenged President Donald Trump to a debate and blasted the administration’s handling of the Epstein files and its agricultural policies.
Colom’s campaign picked up energy after former Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on his behalf before roughly 1,000 supporters in his hometown. In a local interview, Colom called it “a real special moment” and said the race is tied to urgent needs, including the fact that hundreds of thousands of Mississippians still lack health insurance and that rural hospitals face new danger from pending Medicaid cuts.
If elected, Colom would become Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction and the first Democrat to hold the seat since 1982, when John Stennis, a segregationist, left office. Current Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who has drawn criticism for her limited visibility throughout her tenure, is trailing Colom by a slim margin as ballot counting continues.
Colom’s background includes service as a municipal court judge, prosecutor, and district attorney for four counties. He was mentored by Rep. Bennie Thompson through the Mississippi Black Leadership Institute and was later nominated by President Joe Biden for a federal judgeship, a nomination that Hyde-Smith blocked.
Democratic leaders, including former Gov. Brandon Presley and consultants James Carville and Patrick Gaspard, have praised Colom’s grassroots strategy, which depends on strong Black turnout and a meaningful share of White voters. The campaign has also received financial backing from national figures such as Harris, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who gave more than $1.4 million for advertising.
Polling data and campaign finance reports show that Democrats outspent Republicans in the final stretch of the race, spending about $9 million compared with the GOP’s $3.9 million. Colom’s team says the close contest reflects a real shift in voter sentiment, with some Democrats viewing the result as the beginning of a long-term transformation in Mississippi’s political landscape.