Scott Colom to become Mississippi's first Black senator since Reconstruction

IN a monumental upset 145 years in the making, Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi's closely watched Senate race, becoming the state's first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction. 

After days of ballot counting and back-and-forth banter that flirted with legal action, Colom was projected the winner by CNN and NBC News. The election flipped a deep-red state with the nation's largest Black population and a history shaped by racial segregation and the Civil Rights Movement. The state had not sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in more than 44 years.

"For months and months, I've been telling everybody, everywhere I go, that we're going to win this election," Colom told supporters during his victory speech at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. "Because it's not something that I did, y'all. It's something that we did. All I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this.

"I have the courage to believe in Mississippi," Colom said. "I have the courage to understand that we can show the country that Mississippi matters."

Mississippi is the eighth Senate seat Democrats have flipped from Republicans in this year's midterm elections, creating a minimum 55-seat Senate majority going into 2027, with votes still being counted in Alaska.

"Hallelujah!" National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial told USA TODAY, responding to Colom's victory. "It is one of the most significant political victories in American history, given what Mississippi has represented: the long, long history of oppression and white supremacy. 

"It also represents the dawning of a new Mississippi, along with Keisha Lance Bottoms becoming the first Black female governor in Georgia and in the nation, the absolute possibilities of a New South," Morial continued.  "Furthermore, this win also raises the possibility that every statewide race in Mississippi can be competitive."

Colom held a razor-thin but growing lead as absentee and provisional votes were counted. His victory comes even as Hyde-Smith had been favored to win, according to the Cook Political Report, and in a state that President Donald Trump won by more than 23 points in 2024.

Colom ripped the nonpartisan group in a social media post, saying its forecast hurt his campaign.

"At some point, we have to talk about @CookPolitical and other ‘prognosticators’ who had me and other southern candidates labeled as solid R for much of the campaign cycle," Colom said in a Nov. 9 post on X. “They made it much more difficult to fundraise and are part of the reason the South has been neglected for so long."

The former prosecutor's win also comes three years after Hyde-Smith blocked Colom, then a district attorney, from serving as a U.S. District Court judge. Colom then decided to run for Hyde-Smith's seat. He will be Mississippi's first Black senator since Blanche K. Bruce, who was born into slavery and served in 1881, and the first Democrat the state has elected to the U.S. Senate since 1982.

Colom's surprise win came after late surge from Democrats

Colom, 43, a seventh-generation Mississippian, campaigned on the Democrats' consistent message of improving the cost of living and health care for residents. Sensing a narrow opportunity to flip the Senate seat, national Democrats invested in the race late, even as a victory appeared unlikely as Election Day approached.

During much of the campaign, Colom was considered the longshot, but he infused hope and enthusiasm through cross-state campaigning and social media virality. He flipped at least 18 counties that voted for Trump in 2024, according to the USA TODAY Network, including some that have not elected a Democratic senator since the 1980s.

During his victory speech, Colom recalled a Zoom meeting in December with NAACP President Derrick Johnson and others, who gave him an encouraging, yet sobering pep talk.

"They said, 'Listen, we don't think the cavalry is coming. We think that the only chance you got is you better get out there and campaign," Colom said, adding what Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, also told him. "He would look me in the face and say, 'You got to touch as many people as you can. You gotta get them to believe that this is possible.'

"'You gotta listen to them. You gotta show up,'" Colom said. "And I did!"

Colom repeated the same slogan at all of his events across Mississippi: "lower costs, higher wages, save our health care, save our hospitals." He frequently aimed Hyde-Smith during the campaign for what he described as avoiding voters by refusing to hold town halls or answer questions from reporters. He also dubbed her "Cindy High Prices" because, he said, her allegiance to Trump's economic policies raised costs for Mississippians.

During the race, Colom also singled out billionaires, calling for higher taxes on the wealthy to pay for health insurance and save state hospitals.

"These people, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, all these people, they're making plenty of money," Colom said during an Oct. 18 local TV interview. "We don't need to give them corporate subsidies. They need to pay their share."

But Mississippi voters made the race close, with Hyde-Smith leading early before Colom began surging. The race was so close that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee both sent legal teams to monitor the ballot counting.

"I'm confident that ultimately Mississippi has decided to go in a new direction," Colom told reporters while meeting with campaign volunteers in Jackson, Mississippi, on Nov. 5. "We can't get divided around national issues that are actually not going to really help our state because we are a state that needs to focus on our needs because we need it." 

Johnson, the NAACP president, agreed. In a Nov. 11 statement, Johnson said, "Mississippi voters made history because they refused to be intimidated, discouraged, or counted out."

Colom, Hyde-Smith no strangers to each other

The intense Senate election was not the first time Colom and Hyde-Smith squared off.

In 2023, President Joe Biden nominated Colom, a district attorney at the time, to serve as a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Mississippi.

But Hyde-Smith thwarted Biden's nomination and Colom's chances by not submitting a "blue slip" to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to advance. If a senator from the nominee's state does not submit a slip, the confirmation of a lifetime judicial appointment is prevented.

Hyde-Smith said she objected to Colom's support of transgender rights. About 2½ years later, Colom launched his Senate campaign.

Colom explains game-changing viral campaign ad

Part of Colom's success and "beef" with Hyde-Smith also came from a snarky campaign ad, "Pick another protein," that went viral and struck a chord with voters. The spot released last month shows Hyde-Smith, a cattle farmer and a former Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce, responding to a TV reporter's question about what Republicans are doing about soaring beef prices.

"You know, you have so many proteins to choose from," Hyde-Smith responded. Her answer was followed by people grilling and buying beef at a grocery store. "Pick another protein? She done lost her damn mind!" a woman in a diner said.

A man grilling hamburgers said he'd "rather pick another senator instead," followed by Colom delivering a similar message. The ad got 2.8 million views in its first 36 hours across social media platforms.