Democrat Scott Colom wins closely watched US Senate race in Mississippi

What the report says

Democrat Scott Colom has won Mississippi’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, according to Al Jazeera, unseating Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in a narrow result after more than a week of ballot counting. The victory is unusual in a state that has been strongly Republican in recent national elections and gives Democrats another Senate seat following last week’s midterm contests.

Al Jazeera reported that the race took time to resolve because officials were still counting more than 100,000 mail-in ballots and reviewing provisional ballots from voters whose registration could not be immediately confirmed. Colom, a district attorney and prosecutor, will become Mississippi’s first Black senator in more than 140 years, and the last Democrat to win a Senate race in the state was John Stennis in 1982.

The contest also highlighted the candidates’ different public approaches during the final count. Hyde-Smith said she expected every legally cast vote to be counted, while Colom stayed active in public events and criticized her for remaining largely out of view. The two have a prior political history: Hyde-Smith previously opposed Colom’s nomination to a federal judgeship in 2023.

Colom has campaigned on issues including raising the minimum wage and strengthening rural hospitals. His win is being seen as a notable Democratic breakthrough in a state President Donald Trump carried comfortably in the 2024 presidential election.