Democrat Scott Colm Wins Mississippi Senate Seat, Breaking a Long Racial Barrier Since Reconstruction
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Democrat Scott Colm defeated incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi after a prolonged ballot count, becoming the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction and underscoring a historic breakthrough in a state long shaped by racial exclusion.
Democrat Scott Colm defeated incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi, securing the seat after a week of ballot counting following the Nov. 3 election. The win marks the first time a Black person has been elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi since the Reconstruction period, when the last Black senator left office in 1881. The result stands as a powerful rebuke to a political order that has long marginalized Black Mississippians.
Colm addressed supporters outside the historic chapel at Tougaloo College, a historically Black institution that played a role in the civil-rights movement. He said, "God didn’t want us to get it the easy way. He wanted us to get it the Mississippi way." The moment carried deep symbolic weight for a community that has fought for generations to be heard and counted.
Hyde-Smith posted a concession video on social media, stating, "While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters," and added that her campaign worked to ensure every legally cast vote was counted and that the election was fair and transparent. Her remarks closed a hard-fought race that ended with a historic shift in representation.