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Democrat Scott Colom won the Senate election from Mississippi, beating incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. It's a surprise win for Democrats in a state whose voters have leaned Republican for the past four decades.
District Attorney Colom, 43, became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat from Mississippi since John Stennis was elected to the Senate in 1982.
In addition, Colom became the first black representative from Mississippi to be elected to the U.S. Senate in more than 140 years. The last black senator from Mississippi was former slave Blanche Bruce, who won a Senate seat in 1874.
Hyde-Smith admitted defeat and congratulated her opponent.
According to the latest data, Colom was ahead of her opponent by 0.5%, which is approximately 4,600 votes.
According to CBS, Colom received 49.2% of the vote, while Cindy Hyde-Smith received 48.7% and the independent candidate received 2.1%.
On Wednesday evening, Cindy Hyde-Smith posted a video message on the social network X, congratulating Colom and wishing him success.
“While this is not the outcome we sought or hoped for, I respect the choice of Mississippi voters,” she said.
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Hyde-Smith, 67, who has represented Mississippi in the Senate since 2018, had a comfortable lead in polls in a state that Trump won by nearly 23% in 2024. Near the end of the race, Trump personally visited Mississippi to support Hyde-Smith.
The victory in Mississippi gives the Democrats an advantage in the Senate - 55 seats to 44. While the fate of one seat has not yet been determined, the final voting results in Alaska have not yet been published. In the House of Representatives, Democrats currently secured an advantage of 254 votes to 168 (results in another 13 congressional districts have not yet been announced).
The Democrat's victory in Mississippi was part of a national trend: Democrats this time also achieved success in states that had long been dominated by Republicans, including Texas.
image copyrightKyla Herrmannsen/BBC
Mississippi, located in the heart of the Deep South and once a system of racial segregation, became a Republican stronghold in the 1980s. This occurred amid the struggle of African Americans to end racial segregation and discrimination. Many of the key events of the African American civil rights movement took place in Mississippi, where blacks faced discrimination in voting rights, employment, education, and many other areas.
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Few expected that the fight between Colom and Hyde-Smith would be so stubborn and end in victory for the Democrat.
Colom's supporters celebrated his victory with "Senator Elect Colom" signs.
Kolom, speaking to his voters, admitted that during the election campaign, the chances of success of which were initially assessed as low, there were moments when it seemed that everything was lost, but “you had to keep the faith.”
“There were times when potential sponsors didn’t even pick up the phone,” Colom said. “They didn’t believe that this was even possible.” But I continued to believe."
“There were times when I was tired and felt like I couldn’t continue, but I kept the faith, which is another tradition in our state,” he added.
Colom was able to capitalize on voters' dissatisfaction with the rising cost of living over the past year. Many people remember his colorful campaign video, which played on Hyde-Smith's statement that consumers, faced with rising beef prices, may simply choose other sources of protein. “Choose a different protein source? I’d rather choose another senator,” Colom’s video said.
In an October interview with Reuters, Colom noted that Mississippians feel betrayed by the country's authorities. This, he said, is mainly due to Trump’s policies - in particular, due to the situation around Iran, which led to rising fuel prices.
Scott Colom campaigned vigorously, visiting all 82 counties in Mississippi.
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Colom's campaign received additional impetus from rallies in October that included two black Democratic senators: Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Cory Booker of New Jersey.
Hyde-Smith's campaign blasted Colom, calling him a puppet of liberal billionaire donor George Soros, whose family helped finance the Democrat's campaign.
Hyde-Smith, who has held fewer meetings with voters, has been criticized by Democrats for rarely appearing in public and communicating little with her constituents.
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