Democrat Scott Colom Flips Mississippi Senate Seat in Upset

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith conceded Mississippi's U.S. Senate race to Democrat Scott Colom on Wednesday, eight days after the Nov. 3 election. The state's voters last chose a Democrat for the Senate in 1982.

News organizations projected Colom the winner the same day. An unofficial tally on Thursday evening had Colom ahead of Hyde-Smith by more than 4,600 votes out of more than 962,000 counted, a lead of less than 1 percentage point. Independent Ty Pinkins drew 2.1%. The Mississippi secretary of state's office had not yet posted a statewide total.

Colom, 43, was first elected district attorney in 2015. His district, the 16th Circuit Court District, takes in Lowndes, Clay, Oktibbeha and Noxubee counties. Voters there returned him to the office in 2019 and 2023.

He will be Mississippi's first Black senator since Blanche K. Bruce left office in 1881, and the first Black senator the state's voters have elected. Mississippi sent the first two Black members to the Senate, Hiram Revels and Bruce. State lawmakers chose both men, since senators were not popularly elected until the 17th Amendment. Revels took his seat in 1870, and Bruce served from 1875 to 1881.

The Mississippi seat is the eighth Democrats have taken from Republicans this year. The party had already flipped Maine, North Carolina, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas, South Carolina and Texas, enough to win the Senate majority, and it also won control of the House. With Alaska still counting, Democrats are set to hold no fewer than 55 seats once the new Senate convenes in January.

President Donald Trump carried Mississippi by nearly 23 points in 2024, taking 60.9% of the vote to 38.0% for Kamala Harris in the state's certified results.

Hyde-Smith, 67, was appointed in April 2018 to the seat Thad Cochran left and won a special election that November, then a full term in 2020. Her Senate biography describes her as "the first woman elected to represent Mississippi in Washington, D.C." Trump held a rally for her in Corinth on Oct. 26, and her campaign labeled Colom a "transgender defender." Colom, who has two daughters, has said in response that he supports fairness in girls' sports and opposes gender-affirming surgery for minors.

The two had clashed before. In November 2022, President Joe Biden chose Colom for a federal district judgeship in northern Mississippi, and he sent Colom's name to the Senate again in January 2023. That April, Hyde-Smith refused to return her blue slip, the home-state approval the Judiciary Committee relies on before moving a district court pick. Her statement pointed to his "opposition to legislation to protect female athletes" and said "the significant support his campaign received from George Soros" weighed against him. Sen. Roger Wicker, the state's senior senator and also a Republican, had returned his own blue slip. The nomination sat in committee without a hearing until it was returned to the White House.

Colom has said that, as a Christian, he forgave her for blocking it.

Colom ran on the cost of living and nicknamed his opponent "Cindy High Prices." Asked by a local television interviewer about the rising price of beef, Hyde-Smith answered, "You have so many proteins to choose from." His campaign turned the clip into an ad urging voters to pick another senator, and it spread widely online.

In her concession video, posted to social media, Hyde-Smith said, "While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters." She added, "I want to congratulate Scott Colom and wish him well as he takes on the tremendous responsibility of representing our great state."