Democrat Scott Colom defeated Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent Republican senator, to become the first Black senator in Mississippi elected since reconstruction, in a stunning upset after more than a week of vote counting in one of the country’s most reliably red states.
Colom opened up a narrow lead over Hyde-Smith late on election night. His lead widened as election officials counted provisional ballots. Hyde-Smith was not able to close the gap.
Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982. It’s been much longer – not since 1875 – that the state sent a Black senator to Washington. With Colom’s election, Mississippi, the first state to send Black lawmakers to Congress, has sent more Black people to the Senate than any other state besides Illinois. Blanche K Bruce, the last Black man elected to the Senate from Mississippi, was born into slavery; John C Stennis, the last Democrat to be sent from Mississippi, was, for most of his career, a staunch segregationist.
Colom’s election capped a national wave of anger at Donald Trump’s administration, sweeping away Republicans in places where Democrats hadn’t been competitive in decades.
Across the south, voters were further motivated by the president’s attempt to drastically redraw Black majority districts, attempting to dilute the largely Democratic voting blocs.
Colom has a track record of success in the state. In 2015, Colom unseated a nearly 30-year incumbent when he was elected the first Black district attorney for the 16th circuit. As district attorney, he had a 94% success rate for convictions. He’s a seventh-generation Mississippian, whose father was a longtime Republican who campaigned for Ronald Reagan and was friendly with Thad Cochran, a longtime state politician who resigned from his US Senate seat in 2018 due to declining health.
A string of Democratic stars visited the state late in the race as the polls showed a tightening race – Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris and Bill Clinton all made appearances for Colom. Trump rallied for Hyde-Smith last month.
Joe Biden nominated Colom to be a federal judge in the northern district of Mississippi. With support from both Republicans and Democrats , he appeared to be on track to a lifetime appointment on the federal bench, when Hyde-Smith blocked him from having a confirmation hearing.
On election day, Hyde-Smith joked about the incident, saying : “I blocked Scott Colom from being a federal judge, and you blocked him from being a US Senator.”
In the days after the election, Colom continued a dizzying campaign, visiting Millsaps College, his alma mater, and local colleges Jackson State University and Tougaloo College. With national and international cameras on him, Colom stopped by small, local businesses, including Marshall’s Music and Book Store and OffBeat, both of which are Black-owned, and Brent’s Drugs, a Jackson classic.
Colom campaigned on the promise that “Mississippi matters”. He told voters that he would represent all Mississippians. A week before the election, he attended Trump’s rally for Hyde-Smith with the goal of engaging the president’s supporters and listening to them talk about their economic concerns – high gas prices, grocery bills and health insurance. He posed for photos with some rally-goers, and said the face-to-face conversations helped him convert the unlikeliest of voters to his campaign.
He drew national attention for a viral ad that featured Hyde-Smith’s response to a local news host about the rising cost of beef: “You have so many proteins to choose from,” she replied. The 30-second ad jumps from the interview to a man grilling beef patties. “Pick another protein?” he says. “Shiiiit. I’d rather pick another senator instead.”
Colom drove a “pick your protein” taco truck, giving free tacos to voters.
National voting groups and attorneys descended upon the Magnolia state, joining the local groups that worked to mobilize voters. Democratic and Republican groups, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and Democratic election attorneys from the Elias Law Group, have deployed hundreds of volunteers and lawyers to all the state’s 82 counties to oversee the final rounds of counting.
Mississippi has no automatic recount law. A recount can only happen if ordered by a court in response to a lawsuit against a county or county election commission from a political party or campaign. Mississippi law does not establish a system for challenging ballots on a statewide scale, so the process would have to be on a county-by-county basis.
As counting continued, both Hyde-Smith and Colom projected confidence that they would prevail.
“I assure you,” Hyde-Smith said in remarks on election night, “I will continue to be your US senator.”
Asked about the comments at a press conference the next day, Colom replied : “Bless her heart.”
