Colom has since scheduled a victory celebration with his supporters for Wednesday night in Jackson, Mississippi.
By Kehinde Okeowo
Democrat Scott Colom has defeated incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Mississippi election for the US Senate, becoming the state’s first Black US senator since Reconstruction.
The 43-year-old district attorney won the contest on Wednesday after the media projected him as the senator-elect following a prolonged ballot-counting process in one of the final races to be called after the midterm elections.
The latest media-tabulated results showed him ahead by more than 4,500 votes, or 0.5 percentage points.
With this feat, Colom—who harnessed frustration over the cost of living with a breakout campaign advert in which voters ridiculed Hyde-Smith’s suggestion that consumers could choose other “proteins” instead of paying rising beef prices—became the first Democrat to win a Mississippi Senate seat since John Stennis in 1982.
The result represents a stunning upset in the heavily Republican state and gives the Democrats a 55–44 advantage in the 100-member Senate, with the winner in one Senate race from last week’s election—in Alaska—yet to be determined.
Reacting to her loss in a two-minute concession speech posted online, 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.”
ALSO READ: Massie reveals why impeachment articles target US Defence Secretary Hegseth, not Trump
Meanwhile, Colom has scheduled a victory celebration with his supporters for Wednesday night in Jackson, Mississippi.
Earlier, the local prosecutor—who capitalised on the large Black population, discontent with the economy, and Hyde-Smith’s missteps as she sought a second full term—said in the campaign’s closing stretch, “They actually deserve a senator that will listen to them, that actually cares about what they think, actually cares about what they’re going through.”
Colom also added during the campaign that he could represent all of Mississippi, a state where racial divisions have long defined its politics and society.
“It’s got to be about having a party that represents rural America again, suburban America, urban America—a party that makes sure we actually deliver for voters in ways that make their lives better,” he said.
His narrow victory is a seismic shift in Mississippi, which has been controlled mostly by white conservatives for generations despite having the largest share of Black residents of any US state.
The outcome adds to a decisive midterm rebuke of President Donald Trump, whose party suffered defeats in several Republican-controlled states, and it will bolster some Democrats’ argument that their future runs through the American South.
