Democrat Scott Colom becomes Mississippi’s first Black US senator since Civil War Reconstruction

Résumé détaillé

Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith after days of ballot counting, becoming Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction.

Democratic nominee Scott Colom has defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi's closely contested U.S. Senate race after a prolonged ballot counting process, giving the state its first Black U.S. senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction.

Colom's narrow victory is a seismic shift in Mississippi, which has been controlled mostly by white conservatives for generations, and it will echo through the country as well. The outcome adds to a decisive midterm rebuke of President Donald Trump, whose party suffered defeats in several Republican-controlled states, and it will bolster some Democrats' argument that their future runs through the American South.

The Associated Press called the contest Wednesday in Colom's favor after local elections officials spent several days processing absentee and provisional ballots, called affidavit ballots in Mississippi.

Hyde-Smith posted a concession video on social media, and a spokesman for Hyde-Smith confirmed that she had called Colom to concede.

The last time Mississippi chose a new Democratic senator was 1947, and the winner then was a staunch segregationist. Colom, a 43-year-old local prosecutor, capitalized on the state’s large Black population, discontent with the economy and Hyde-Smith’s missteps as she sought a second full term.

“They actually deserve a senator that will listen to them, that actually cares about what they think, actually cares about what they’re going through,” Colom said in the campaign's closing stretch.

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Colom said during the campaign that he could represent all of Mississippi, a state where racial divisions have long defined its politics and society.

“It’s got to be about having a party that represents rural America again, suburban America, urban America — a party that makes sure we actually deliver for voters in ways that make their lives better, and we don’t come up with excuses as to why we can’t do it,” he said.

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