Democrat Scott Colom has won Mississippi's U.S. Senate race, defeating Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith more than a week after Election Day in a result that makes him the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state since 1982 and the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction. The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday evening, November 11, and Hyde-Smith conceded shortly afterward in a video message to voters.
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| Scott Colom speaks during a town hall meeting in Jackson, Mississippi, during his Senate campaign. (Photo: Rogelio V. Solis / Mississippi Free Press) |
Colom's victory closed out the closest Senate race in the country and one of the biggest surprises of the 2026 midterm elections. In a state Republicans have dominated for decades, a local prosecutor built a campaign around kitchen-table economics and government accountability and outlasted an incumbent who had the endorsement of President Donald Trump.
A Race Decided by a Few Thousand Votes
The Associated Press called the race for Colom early on Wednesday evening, after counties reported their final batches of affidavit and absentee ballots. CNN and other outlets followed with their own calls. With about 99 percent of the vote counted, Colom led Hyde-Smith 49.2 percent to 48.7 percent, a margin of roughly 4,600 votes out of nearly one million cast.
The race had been decided by the slimmest of margins for more than a week. On election night, Colom led by just 43 votes after the final update, which came in from Pike County at 3:03 a.m. Eastern time. His lead grew slowly as counties worked through outstanding ballots, and it widened decisively on Wednesday when Hinds County, home to the state capital of Jackson, counted its remaining affidavit ballots. Colom received 703 of the county's 817 accepted affidavit ballots, while Hyde-Smith received 96. He also won 61 of the 67 remaining mail-in absentee ballots counted there.
Hyde-Smith conceded in a video posted to social media shortly after the AP's call, and her campaign said she also called Colom personally to concede. "While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters," she said. "I want to congratulate Scott Colom and wish him well as he takes on the tremendous responsibility of representing our great state." She gave no hint of any legal challenge to the result.
Colom, who had publicly called on Hyde-Smith to concede before the first projection came in, planned to address supporters at a victory event on Wednesday evening. Independent candidate Ty Pinkins also ran in the race.
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| Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Hyde-Smith, who had served in the Senate since 2018, conceded the Mississippi race to Scott Colom on Wednesday evening, November 11. (Photo: NBC News) |
Who Is Scott Colom
Colom, 43, is a Columbus native and a Millsaps College graduate who serves as district attorney for Mississippi's 16th Judicial District. He built his campaign around economic issues, government accountability, and expanding opportunities in rural communities, themes that resonated in a state where many voters said they felt left behind by both parties.
His candidacy drew national attention and national help. Former President Bill Clinton campaigned for him in the race's final days, and former Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned alongside him and celebrated the result on social media. Outside groups and party organizations poured millions of dollars into Mississippi, sensing an opening in a state Republicans had comfortably carried for decades.
There is a personal edge to the result as well. Hyde-Smith had previously blocked Colom's nomination to become a federal judge. Now he is taking her seat in the Senate, a reversal that Colom's supporters were quick to note on Wednesday evening.
A History-Making Result
Colom's win breaks two long streaks at once. He is the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi since 1982, when John C. Stennis won re-election. He is also the state's first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction, the period after the Civil War when Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce represented Mississippi in the Senate.
He is also the first Black senator ever elected directly by Mississippi voters. Revels and Bruce were both chosen by the state legislature, in 1870 and 1875 respectively, in an era before senators were elected by popular vote.
The reaction from national Democrats was immediate. Clinton posted on X that "Blue Mississippi sure has a nice ring to it." Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer wrote, "Blue Mississippi Is Here." Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey emphasized the historic nature of the win, and Senator Bernie Sanders praised the campaign's message. Derrick Johnson, the national president of the NAACP, credited the victory to surging turnout by Black voters. "In a state that has witnessed some of the nation's most difficult battles for voting rights, Black voters once again demonstrated the power of civic engagement and the strength of our democracy," Johnson said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal described the outcome as a sign of how voter disenchantment with President Trump and his party had extended to unlikely corners of the country, given Mississippi's deeply conservative leanings. Colom's win followed a similar upset in Texas, where Democrat James Talarico defeated Attorney General Ken Paxton in the most expensive Senate race in American history, part of a midterm wave that handed Democrats control of both chambers of Congress.
The Ballot Fight Behind the Result
The race was not only close, it was fought under some of the most restrictive voting rules in the country. Mississippi does not allow no-excuse mail voting, early voting, or same-day and online registration, practices that are common in many other states. Voters must register through paper applications delivered to county clerks' offices at least 30 days before an election.
This year, tens of thousands of Mississippians had to vote by affidavit, or provisional, ballot after the state marked them as "inactive" voters following a change in its voter-list maintenance procedures. Even then, there was no guarantee those votes would be counted. Hinds County, the state's second most populous county and a Democratic stronghold, rejected roughly two-thirds of its affidavit ballots, most likely because of improper registration or votes cast in the wrong precinct.
Colom had made voting access part of his campaign, calling in an interview last week for sweeping reforms to expand access to the ballot and curb partisan gerrymandering. His victory, according to Democracy Docket, represents a major win over the state's voting policies as well as over its Republican incumbent.
Mississippi law added to the uncertainty of the count. A majority of more than 50 percent is not needed to win a federal race in the state, and Mississippi has no recount process, which meant the slow count of affidavit and absentee ballots, rather than a recount, would settle the outcome. State officials said they did not expect final certified totals until Friday at 5 p.m.
What This Means
Colom's victory gives Democrats 55 seats in the Senate, with the Alaska race still uncalled. Democrat Mary Peltola was leading Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan there by fewer than 1,000 votes when counting continued, and if she holds on, Democrats would hold a 56-44 majority, their largest since 2008.
For Mississippi, the result ends Hyde-Smith's eight years in the Senate. She was appointed in 2018 to fill the seat left by Thad Cochran and won a special election later that year. Her defeat removes one of the Senate's most reliable Republican votes and puts a Democrat in a seat the party had not won in more than four decades.
For the country, the result is the latest evidence that the 2026 midterms reshaped the political map in ways few predicted. Democrats flipped seats in Texas and Mississippi, two states at the heart of Republican power, by arguing that voters' economic frustrations mattered more than party loyalty.
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| The Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson. Colom's victory makes him the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi since 1982. |
What Happens Next
Colom will be sworn in when the new Congress begins in January 2027. Counties must complete certification of the results by Friday, and Hyde-Smith's concession removed the prospect of a legal fight over the outcome.
Attention now turns to Alaska, the only Senate race still awaiting a result, where ranked-choice tabulation is scheduled to begin on November 18. It also turns to the new Democratic majority's plans for January, when the party will take control of both chambers and set the agenda for the second half of President Trump's term.
For Colom, the work begins with the promises he made on the campaign trail: an economy that works for rural Mississippi, a government voters can trust, and a voting system that counts every ballot. He made history by winning. What he does with the seat will decide whether Mississippi's turn toward blue was a moment or a movement.
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