Scott Colom defeats Hyde-Smith, flips Mississippi Senate seat
Why it matters: The upset helps cement Democrats’ new Senate majority and would make Colom Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction.
Democrat Scott Colom defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s Senate race, completing one of the election’s biggest upsets. Earlier Wednesday, Colom’s lead had grown to 4,404 votes with an estimated 99% of ballots counted, helped by newly processed affidavit ballots and votes from Hinds County, which includes Jackson. PBS NewsHour later reported the race as a Colom victory. Independent candidate Ty Pinkins won 2.1% of the vote. Mississippi had not elected a Democratic senator since 1982, and Colom’s win would make him the state’s first Black senator since the Reconstruction era.