Scott Colom speaks with attendees at an event held at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, Miss. on Aug. 1, 2026. Sarah Warnock/AP hide caption
Democrat Scott Colom has won election to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi, according to a race call by the Associated Press, narrowly defeating Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
After more than a week of counting outstanding, absentee ballots and affidavit — or provisional — ballots, Colom won the closest Senate race in the country by just a few thousand votes.
In a midterm full of stunning upsets for Democrats, Colom's victory underscores a dramatic shift in the political landscape across the South driven by a surge of Black voter turnout.
Mississippi has the highest share of Black voters in the country, at close to 40%, but President Trump won the state by 23 points in 2024. Mississippi hasn't elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in more than 40 years and hasn't sent a Black senator to Washington since Reconstruction.
The state's rural, agriculture-heavy economy was disproportionately impacted by rising prices, and saw millions in investment from both parties, particularly in the final weeks of the race. Colom, a district attorney, made cost of living a centerpiece of his campaign message, decrying "Cindy High-Prices" as bad for Mississippi.
Unlike most other contested Senate races that flipped, Mississippi did not see much national money or attention until the closing days of the election. That included a rally in the final week by President Trump and high-profile visits from former Vice President Kamala Harris, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and other Democrats. The Cook Political Report had the race rated as Likely Republican going into election night.
Colom told NPR earlier this month that a lack of investment from national Democrats until the last minute was a mistake.
"The reality is, Mississippi has never been a lost cause, we've been a betrayed cause," he said. "The Democratic Party has not been trying to win Mississippi. Let's stop kidding ourselves, right? They spent hundreds of millions of dollars in other states. They spent almost nothing in Mississippi."
Colom's campaign was a contrast in style from Hyde-Smith, who rarely spoke to reporters in Washington and had minimal presence in the state.
When asked about high beef prices earlier this year, Hyde-Smith — a cattle rancher and onetime state agriculture commissioner — said that "you have so many other proteins to choose from."
That led to a viral campaign ad from Colom, which featured several people expressing disbelief at the senator's suggestion to "pick another protein." Instead, the ad said, it was time to "pick another senator."
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