Democrat Scott Colom Wins Mississippi Senate Seat in Historic Upset
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
District attorney Scott Colom narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, becoming Mississippi's first Black senator since Reconstruction and the state's first Democratic senator since 1982.
District attorney Scott Colom secured a narrow victory over incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, winning the Mississippi Senate race by fewer than 5,000 votes, according to the Associated Press call on Wednesday evening. The win marks the first time since 1982 that a Democrat has been elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi and the first Black senator from the state since the 1870s.
Colom, who has served as the district attorney for the 16th judicial district since 2016, ran on a platform of affordable health care, preserving rural hospitals and improving economic opportunities. He credited a grassroots campaign that relied on door-to-door outreach and local events rather than large-scale spending. > "We didn't have hundreds of million dollars to come in to spend – we did it going door to door, festival to festival, earning support," Colom said at a coastal canvassing event.
While he carried traditionally Democratic areas such as Hinds County, Colom also flipped historically Republican counties, including Forrest County, which President Trump won with about 58 percent of the vote in 2024. National Democratic figures, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former President Bill Clinton and Senator Raphael Warnock, visited the state in the final weeks of the campaign, and a Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer-aligned PAC contributed $1.2 million for advertising.
Hyde-Smith, who had previously blocked a federal judicial nomination for Colom, conceded the race on election night, acknowledging the decision of Mississippi voters. Colom said the campaign’s success reflected a broader voter understanding of the power of their ballots and emphasized his intent to serve the state’s communities in the Senate.
Colom highlighted his commitment to improving schools, job opportunities, and health care access, noting that his election could pave the way for future African-American candidates. > "My job is to be a senator that makes it easier for the next African American that has the work ethic, the vision, the values, and they want to be United States senator, make it easier for them," he told reporters in Jackson.
The victory, described by observers as one of the most striking upsets of the midterm elections, underscores shifting political dynamics in a state long dominated by Republican candidates.