Democrat Scott Colom edges out Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi Senate race after historic surge in Black turnout
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After a week-long count of absentee and provisional ballots, Democrat Scott Colom won Mississippi's U.S. Senate seat by a few thousand votes, delivering the state its first Democratic senator in more than 40 years amid a major rise in Black voter turnout.
Democrat Scott Colom secured Mississippi's U.S. Senate seat, according to an Associated Press call, narrowly defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by a margin of a few thousand votes after a week of counting outstanding absentee and provisional ballots. The race was the closest Senate contest in the nation and underscored how even the most entrenched Republican strongholds can be shaken when more voters are mobilized.
Mississippi, which has the nation's highest proportion of Black voters at roughly 40%, has not elected a Democrat to the Senate in more than 40 years and has not sent a Black senator to Washington since Reconstruction. The outcome reflects increased Black voter turnout in the midterm election, a reminder that participation, when it finally gets attention and investment, can still break through decades of political neglect.
Colom, a district attorney, centered his campaign on the cost-of-living issue, criticizing what he called "Cindy High-Prices" as harmful to the state. He later told NPR that the Democratic Party's delayed investment in Mississippi was a mistake, saying,
"The reality is, Mississippi has never been a lost cause, we've been a betrayed cause. The Democratic Party has not been trying to win Mississippi. Let's stop kidding ourselves, right? They spent hundreds of millions of dollars in other states. They spent almost nothing in Mississippi."
President Trump held a rally in the final week of the campaign, and former Vice President Kamala Harris, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and other Democrats visited the state. The Cook Political Report had rated the contest as Likely Republican before election night.
When asked earlier this year about rising beef prices, Sen. Hyde-Smith, a cattle rancher and former state agriculture commissioner, responded that "you have so many other proteins to choose from."