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Scott Colom, a 43-year-old local prosecutor, has won the United States Senate race in Mississippi, defeating Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by a margin of fewer than five thousand votes out of nearly one million counted — a result that makes him the first Black person from the state elected to the Senate in more than 140 years.
Colom received 49.2 percent of the vote to Hyde-Smith’s 48.7 percent, with an independent candidate taking the remaining 2.1 percent, according to figures from CBS. The result ends a Republican winning streak in Mississippi Senate races stretching back to 1982.
The victory gives Democrats 55 seats in the 100-member Senate, with a separate race in Alaska still uncalled. Democrats also took control of the House of Representatives in the same midterm cycle, completing a sweep that exit polls attributed in large part to voter frustration over the economy, tariffs and the Iran war under President Donald Trump.
A national wave, a local campaign
Mississippi was never considered competitive territory. Trump carried the state by more than 22 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election, and Hyde-Smith was seeking re-election to a seat she had held since 2018. Colom’s campaign nonetheless pressed aggressively, visiting all 82 of Mississippi’s counties and framing Hyde-Smith’s support for Trump’s tariff policy with the nickname “Cindy High Prices.” Hyde-Smith’s campaign countered by describing Colom as a vehicle for billionaire liberal donor George Soros, whose family has contributed to the Democrat’s political campaigns. The 67-year-old Republican was also criticised for limited public appearances during the race.
Colom delivered his victory speech on the campus of Tougaloo College, a historically Black institution, to hundreds of supporters gathered outside under the night sky. “They did not believe a moment like this was possible, but I kept the faith,” he told the crowd. “It’s not something that I did y’all. It’s something we did. In Mississippi, it’s local people that make the difference.”
Hyde-Smith conceded in a video posted on X on Wednesday evening. “While this was not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters,” she said, offering her congratulations to Colom.
Reaction at the NAACP
Dozens of people gathered at the Mississippi headquarters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Jackson when the result was announced, breaking into applause. Leon Russell, chairman of the NAACP board, called it “an amazing result” and credited grassroots organisation over financial resources. “This is purely the work of particularly the black community,” Russell said. “There was not a whole lot of money, but there was a whole lot of organising.”
The result came eight days after the 4 November election, with the narrow margin requiring a prolonged count. Democrats also flipped Senate seats in Texas, South Carolina, Kansas and Iowa during the same midterm elections, according to the source report.