Democrat Scott Colom has pulled off a historic political upset in Mississippi, defeating Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in a race that remained too close to call for more than a week after Election Day. The Associated Press and CNN projected Colom the winner Wednesday as he maintained a narrow lead through the counting of absentee and provisional ballots.
Colom’s victory marks multiple milestones: He becomes the first Black U.S. senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction and the first Democrat elected to represent the state in the Senate since 1982. At 43, the district attorney will also be one of the youngest members of the incoming Senate class.
A Political Earthquake in Deep-Red Mississippi
The upset is particularly stunning given Mississippi’s strong Republican leanings – President Donald Trump carried the state by nearly 23 points in 2024. Colom’s win ends decades of GOP dominance in Mississippi’s Senate delegation and delivers Democrats another marquee victory in a midterm election that saw them retake control of Congress.
Colom will be the first Black senator from Mississippi elected directly by voters. The only previous Black senators from the state – Hiram Revels (1870-1871) and Blanche K. Bruce (1875-1881) – were both Republicans appointed during Reconstruction.
How Colom Pulled Off the Unthinkable
The Democratic challenger ran a campaign focused on kitchen-table issues, hammering Hyde-Smith over health care costs and her support for Trump administration policies he argued hurt working Mississippians. He seized on a particularly damaging moment when Hyde-Smith suggested consumers struggling with high beef prices should “pick another protein” – a remark Colom turned into a devastating campaign ad.
Colom also benefited from high-profile Democratic support, with campaign appearances by former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Kamala Harris. But he consistently argued that Democrats had wrongly written off Mississippi for years, pointing to the state’s large Black population and potential to attract disaffected white voters.
“We were never a lost cause. We were [a] betrayed cause,” Colom told NBC News during the campaign, criticizing both his opponent and national Democrats for failing to compete seriously in the state.
An Unusual Backstory
The race carried an extra layer of drama given Colom’s history with Hyde-Smith. President Joe Biden had nominated Colom to a federal judgeship in 2022, but Hyde-Smith blocked his confirmation using the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition that allows home-state senators to oppose judicial nominees. Colom later said he had forgiven Hyde-Smith and that his Senate campaign wasn’t about revenge.
Colom will be sworn in January with the rest of the 120th Congress, joining a Democratic majority that defied historical trends and expanded its Senate control in the midterms. His victory represents not just a personal triumph but a potential roadmap for Democrats in long-ignored Southern states.
Source: www.dailywire.com โ https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrat-scott-colom-flips-mississippi-senate-seat-in-historic-upset