Scott Colom's lead grows to 2,574 as Cindy Hyde-Smith's leads diminish

Democrat Scott Colom’s lead over Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has widened further as opportunities to make up lost ground continue to shift away from the incumbent.

As of 5 p.m. Friday afternoon, Colom was ahead of Hyde-Smith by 2,574 votes out of more than 950,000 votes cast statewide, the Associated Press reported. Thousands of votes remain, but most are expected to be affidavit ballots that could take counties until the end of next week to complete the count. Hyde-Smith would need a significant number of those affidavit ballots to force her way to victory, but so far Colom has consistently outperformed her overall margins in affidavit ballots, helping her pull further away in the vote count.

Observers expect thousands of remaining affidavit votes will come from Hinds County, a majority-black county where Colom leads the overall total 79 percent to 19 percent. Hinds County officials are still counting affidavit ballots and have not yet released numbers.

Award-winning editor Ashton Pittman, originally from the Pine Belt of South Mississippi, studied journalism and political science at the University of Southern Mississippi. Previously a state reporter at the Jackson Free Press, he made headlines and national conversations with award-winning reporting on segregation academies. He has won numerous awards, including Outstanding New Journalist in the South, for his work covering immigration raids, abortion battles and even former Gov. Phil Bryant’s unusual work with “The Bad Boys of Brexit” at the Jackson Free Press. In 2021, as a reporter for the Mississippi Free Press, he was named Diamond Journalist of the Year in seven southern states in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Diamond Awards. A photojournalist by training, Ashton lives in southern Mississippi with her husband, William, and their two pit bulls, Dorothy and Dru.

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