Scott Colom speaks with attendees during an event at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, Mississippi, August 1, 2026.
Sarah Warnock/AP
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Sarah Warnock/AP
Democrat Scott Colom won the U.S. Senate election in Mississippi, according to an Associated Press race call, narrowly defeating Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
After more than a week of counting outstanding ballots, absentee ballots and sworn — or provisional — ballots, Colom won the nation’s closest Senate race by just a few thousand votes.
In a midterm filled with stunning upheaval for Democrats, Colom’s victory underscores a sea change in the political landscape across the South, driven by a sharp rise in black voter turnout.
Mississippi has the highest proportion of Black voters in the country, nearly 40%, but President Trump won the state by 23 points in 2024. Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in more than 40 years and has not sent a Black senator to Washington since Reconstruction.
The state’s rural and heavily agricultural economy has been disproportionately hit by rising prices and has seen millions of investments from both parties, particularly in the final weeks of the race. Colom, a district attorney, made the cost of living a centerpiece of his campaign message, denouncing “Cindy’s high prices” as bad for Mississippi.
Unlike most other contested Senate elections that have flipped, Mississippi did not receive much money or national attention until the final days of the election. That included a rally in President Trump’s final week and high-profile visits from former Vice President Kamala Harris, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and other Democrats. The Cook Political Report rated the race as likely Republican heading into election night.
Colom told NPR earlier this month that the lack of investment from national Democrats until the last minute was a mistake.
“The reality is that Mississippi has never been a lost cause, we have been a betrayed cause,” he said. “The Democratic Party didn’t try to win Mississippi. Let’s stop fooling ourselves, shall we? They spent hundreds of millions of dollars in other states. They spent almost nothing in Mississippi.”
Colom’s campaign contrasted in style with that of Hyde-Smith, who rarely spoke to reporters in Washington and had a minimal presence in the state.
Asked about high beef prices earlier this year, Hyde-Smith — a cattle rancher and former state agriculture commissioner — said “you have so many other proteins to choose from.”
This led to a viral ad campaign from Colom, in which several people expressed disbelief at the senator’s suggestion to “choose another protein.” Instead, the ad said, it was time to “choose another senator.”
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