Democrat Scott Colom Defeats Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi

The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the section marked as opinion.

Democrat Scott Colom has defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi's U.S. Senate race, NBC News projected Wednesday, in a result Reuters said media outlets called the same evening. The contest was among the last Senate races left uncalled after the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Colom will become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Mississippi since 1982 and the state's first Black U.S. senator since the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War, both outlets reported.

With 99 percent of the vote counted, Colom led Hyde-Smith 473,336 to 468,667, a margin of 4,669 votes, according to The Associated Press as reported by The Vicksburg Post. Independent candidate Ty Pinkins received 20,234 votes, the Post reported. Reuters, citing the latest media-tabulated results, said Colom was ahead by more than 4,500 votes, or 0.5 percentage point.

Hyde-Smith conceded Wednesday evening. In a video message quoted by NBC News and Reuters, she 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." Colom's campaign told NBC News that Hyde-Smith had called him to concede.

In remarks to supporters in Jackson on Wednesday night, Colom, a district attorney, said, "For months and months, I've been telling everybody, everywhere I go, that we're going to win this election. I was saying it eight and nine months ago." He said what he described as the "Mississippi faith tradition" had guided his campaign and added, "This journey started with a prayer." He promised to represent all Mississippians, including "the ones that voted for me, the ones that didn't vote for me and the ones that didn't vote." NBC News said he spoke at Tougaloo College.

NBC News noted that Mississippi last elected a Democrat to the Senate 44 years ago, just a few weeks before Colom was born in 1982. Reuters identified that earlier winner as Sen. John Stennis and described Colom as a 43-year-old district attorney. Reuters also reported that the last Black candidate elected to the Senate from Mississippi was Blanche Bruce in 1874.

Hyde-Smith, 67, was appointed to the Senate in 2018 and won a special election later that year, Reuters reported. She won a full six-year term in 2020, NBC News and The Vicksburg Post reported. The Post said she was appointed after Sen. Thad Cochran retired. NBC News reported that she had blocked Colom's nomination for a federal judgeship during the Biden administration. Reuters said the block came in 2023, and that Mississippi's other senator, Republican Roger Wicker, had supported the nomination.

President Donald Trump carried Mississippi by 23 percentage points in 2024, NBC News reported. Reuters said he won the state by nearly 23 points and campaigned there for Hyde-Smith near the end of the race. NBC News said Trump traveled to the state eight days before the election. Colom's victory means Democrats will hold at least 55 Senate seats next year, with only the Alaska Senate race still uncalled, both outlets reported. Dock Line previously reported on Trump Campaigns for Hyde-Smith as Democrats Spend in Mississippi. A Fake Poll Shows Why Only the Vote Counts..

Colom built his campaign around the cost of living. Reuters reported that he used a breakout ad in which voters ridiculed Hyde-Smith's suggestion that consumers could choose other "proteins" instead of paying rising beef prices. NBC News described a campaign video highlighting Hyde-Smith's comment that Mississippians struggling with high beef prices "have so many proteins to choose from," with people in the video saying, "Pick another protein? I'd rather pick another senator." In a recent interview with NBC News, Colom said, "We were never a lost cause. We were a betrayed cause." He told NBC that Hyde-Smith had allowed tariffs to hurt the state and that the war in Iran had driven up costs, and he said the national Democratic Party "did not compete in this state."

Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Raphael Warnock of Georgia campaigned for Colom, and former President Barack Obama appeared in a digital ad, NBC News reported. Reuters said October rallies with Warnock and Booker had boosted the campaign.

Opinion:

Mississippi voters have spoken, and Sen. Hyde-Smith was right to concede. A close election is still an election. No one is served by pretending the count did not happen, or by treating a few thousand votes as a landslide.

This is a hard result for Republicans in a state President Trump carried by 23 points two years ago. A party that cannot answer the grocery bill, the fuel bill, and the cost of a doctor visit should not be surprised when a deep-red seat gets away. Taking Mississippi for granted was a political error.

It is also a mistake to read more into this race than the voters put there. Colom won a narrow contest after a long count. That is a warning about prices and about complacency. It is not, on the evidence reported so far, a sudden decision by Mississippi to abandon its conservative character.

Colom spoke of prayer and of the Mississippi faith tradition on Wednesday night. Those words should not be cheap. Faith is not a campaign mascot, and it does not belong to one party. If he meant what he said about representing the people who voted for him and the people who did not, he will be judged by whether he tells the truth and keeps his word.

Democrats will take a larger Senate majority into the next Congress, with Alaska still outstanding. They will have more power to block legislation and to press oversight of the administration. Power is not the same thing as wisdom. The country will be watching whether they use that majority to lower costs and keep the government honest, or to settle scores.