Scott Colom flips Mississippi Senate seat, ending GOP hold
Why it matters: The win makes Colom Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction and adds to Democrats’ Senate edge.
Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race after several days of counting absentee and provisional ballots, a result AP called Wednesday. Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, won by about 0.5 percentage point, or roughly 4,600 votes, according to media-tabulated returns cited by Reuters and other outlets. The upset in a state Donald Trump carried by nearly 23 points in 2024 hands Democrats another Senate seat and marks Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator since the Reconstruction era. Hyde-Smith, first appointed in 2018, had been seeking a second full term after a race shaped by voter anger over living costs and national Republican setbacks.