Democrat Scott Colom wins Mississippi Senate race, ousting Cindy Hyde-Smith

Democrat Scott Colom has won Mississippi's U.S. Senate race, narrowly defeating Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in one of the biggest surprises of the midterm elections. The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday, November 11, after local officials spent several days counting absentee and provisional ballots.

By AP's figures, Colom won 49.2 percent of the vote to Hyde-Smith's 48.7 percent. At the end of election night, the two were just 65 votes apart, according to Yahoo News.

Why it's a big deal

• A long-red state flips. Mississippi hasn't had a Democratic U.S. senator since 1989. Democrats last won a Senate race there in 1982. President Trump won the state by nearly 23 points in 2024, AP notes.
• A first in more than 140 years. Colom will be Mississippi's first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction, according to AP.
• A bigger Democratic majority. Colom's win brings Democrats to 55 Senate seats, their best midterm result since 1974, according to Yahoo News. Alaska is the only Senate race still undecided.

Who Scott Colom is

Colom, 43, is a local prosecutor from Columbus, Mississippi. His parents were both lawyers; his father once ran for state treasurer as a Republican, and his mother became the first Black chancery court judge in their home district. He earned his law degree from the University of Wisconsin in 2009.

He was a justice court judge and a city prosecutor before winning his district attorney race in 2015, beating an incumbent of nearly 30 years. In 2022, President Biden nominated him to be a federal judge in northern Mississippi. Republican Sen. Roger Wicker and former Republican governors Phil Bryant and Haley Barbour supported him, but Hyde-Smith blocked the nomination, using the Senate tradition that lets home-state senators stop judicial picks, according to AP and Yahoo News.

How he won

Colom ran mostly on the economy and on Hyde-Smith herself. He criticized the Iran war and tariffs, which he said hurt Mississippi farmers, without attacking Trump personally, AP reported.

The turning point may have been beef. Earlier this year, asked about soaring costs, Hyde-Smith told WLOX that "all commodities go through peaks and valleys" and that "you have so many proteins to choose from." Colom built a campaign ad around that line in mid-October, and his follow-up video drew about 19 million views online, according to Yahoo News.

Polls had shown Hyde-Smith ahead, but only by single digits, and analysts rated the race "likely Republican." National Democrats spent late, Barack Obama filmed an ad, and Republicans sent Trump to Mississippi in the final days.

"They did not believe a moment like this was possible, but I kept the faith," Colom said. In his victory speech he said: "I had the courage to believe in Mississippi."

What Hyde-Smith said

Hyde-Smith, 67, conceded in a video. "While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters," she said, and congratulated Colom. She was appointed to the Senate in 2018 after Thad Cochran resigned, then won a special election that year and a full term in 2020.

The common-sense view

Mississippi is still a conservative state. A narrow loss by an incumbent who barely campaigned, in a year when gas, beef and grocery prices hit voters hard, doesn't mean the state has changed its mind about everything. Colom himself kept his distance from national Democrats on some issues and talked mostly about prices. Even Trump has said higher fuel costs from the war hurt Republicans this year.

The lesson for both parties is simple and old: voters notice when they're paying more, and they notice when a politician seems not to care. "You have so many proteins to choose from" is the kind of line that ends careers.

What it means for your wallet

A 55-seat Democratic majority in the Senate will decide what comes to a vote on taxes, spending and energy over the next two years. Republicans still hold the presidency and the veto, so expect plenty of fights, and probably some deals, on the issues that hit family budgets. Our earlier stories cover the fight over who will lead the new Senate majority and the December 11 government funding deadline.

What to watch next

• Alaska's Senate count, the last undecided race.
• Colom's committee assignments once the new Senate is sworn in on January 3.
• Whether Mississippi Republicans see this as a one-off or a warning.