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Scott Colom wins Mississippi Senate race, first Black senator since Reconstruction

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Summary

  • Mississippi Democrat Scott Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, defeated Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by 4,669 votes after a week-long count.
  • He is Mississippi's first Black senator since Reconstruction and the first ever elected by the state's voters, joining 55 Senate Democrats.
  • He is the state's first Democratic senator since 1982; Alaska's Senate race remained the last uncalled.
  • Colom urged Democrats to invest more in Mississippi and the rural South so his low-resource win is not a one-time event.
  • The count was delayed by a voter purge using Experian address data that forced thousands onto affidavit ballots despite civil rights groups' warnings.
  • Hyde-Smith blocked his 2023 federal judgeship; accounts differ on whether it motivated his run.

Reactions

  • Mississippi Republican Party chairman Mike Hurst acknowledged Colom's strong showing but said the state remains Republican.
  • NAACP president Derrick Johnson credited voters who refused to be intimidated; supporters at Tougaloo College compared the hope to Barack Obama's 2008 election.
  • Bryan Stevenson called Colom's win an extraordinary new moment for Black voters, tracing it to Mississippi's history of violent voter suppression.
  • Southern Democrats and strategists urged the national party to invest in the South ahead of 2028, saying the region should not be ceded.
  • The Daily Show's Desi Lydic mocked Hyde-Smith for celebrating prematurely, joking that she had 'been celebrating losers her whole life.'
  • Nikole Hannah-Jones said the victory came in spite of the Democratic Party and was paid for by civil rights foot soldiers.

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  1. Colom urged Democrats on 'Meet the Press' to channel more financial and political investment into Mississippi and deliver for the rural South.
  2. Democrats flipped Senate seats in Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas and won governorships in Texas and Georgia in the 2026 midterms.
  3. Colom, stranded in Atlanta after a nationwide FAA ground stop, vowed to ensure Donald Trump follows through on his campaign promises and to support legislation restricting congressional stock trading.
  4. Colom declined to back Chuck Schumer or Chris Van Hollen for Senate Democratic leader and said he hopes to raise the minimum wage and return tariff policy to Congress.
  5. Colom ended election night on November 3 leading Cindy Hyde-Smith by 28 votes; his margin grew past 5,000 in the days before she conceded.
  6. Colom held a victory rally at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, on November 11.
  7. A coalition of about a dozen mostly Black-led Mississippi nonprofits mobilized voters after the Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais decision; nearly 1 million Mississippians voted, near presidential levels.
  8. Analysts estimated Colom won 91 percent of Mississippi's Black voters and 25 percent of white voters, as the Black share of the electorate rose to 33 percent from 30 percent.
  9. Secretary of State Michael Watson's office used Experian address data to purge Mississippi's voter rolls despite warnings; Experian disavowed the use, and Watson threatened to sue.
  10. An essay argued Colom's victory was predictable after earlier close races, noting the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee left Mississippi out of a $40 million investment initiative.
  11. Ryan Sayles, 27, filmed and edited the viral 'pick another protein' ad mocking Hyde-Smith's beef-price advice that helped Colom win.
  12. Colom said it was 'not accurate' that Chuck Schumer recruited him, credited Mississippi voters, said he forgave Hyde-Smith, and pledged to work with Senator Roger Wicker.
  13. The Associated Press called Mississippi's Senate race for Colom on November 11, and Hyde-Smith conceded, saying she respected Mississippi voters' decision.
  14. Colom credited his win partly to mobilization after the Callais decision and Republican efforts to carve up Representative Bennie Thompson's district.
  15. Local activists registered 40,000 new Mississippi voters, and Black turnout surged to help power Colom's upset.
  16. After a journalist tweeted which prominent Democrats had donated early to Colom's campaign, offices of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries contacted him to claim credit.
  17. Colom credited door-to-door canvassing over big money for his victory by under 5,000 votes.
  18. Hyde-Smith conceded after Decision Desk HQ projected the race; her campaign's lawyers faced a Colom camp records-preservation demand it called unlawful.
  19. Colom's win gave Democrats a 55-seat Senate majority in the 2026 midterms.
  20. Colom called on Hyde-Smith to concede, citing a 4,404-vote gap that he said left her no mathematical path.
  21. Hinds County's count of hundreds of affidavit ballots — 703 for Colom against 96 for Hyde-Smith — widened his lead to 4,404 votes.
  22. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Marc Elias's favor against the Republican National Committee on counting late-arriving Mississippi mail ballots, adding about 3,000 ballots.
  23. Hinds County rejected more than two-thirds of the affidavit ballots cast in Mississippi's midterms, accepting 817 of 2,426.
  24. Final tallies put Colom's margin of victory at 4,669 votes over Hyde-Smith.
  25. A week after Election Day, Colom led by 2,536 votes with over 2,700 absentee ballots outstanding, and county certification was due November 13.
  26. Colom attacked the Cook Political Report for rating his race 'Likely R,' saying the rating hampered his fundraising.
  27. Organizers chased affidavit ballots in county clerks' offices; canvasser Shan'terrius Sly shuttled relatives and neighbors to salvage votes after her own ballot was purged.
  28. The race remained too early to call as officials examined absentee and affidavit ballots across all 82 counties; Hyde-Smith had declared victory on election night.
  29. Colom led Hyde-Smith by 2,574 votes four days after the election, blamed Secretary of State Michael Watson in part for voters' difficulties, and pushed for early voting.

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