Scott Colom Wins Nail-Biter Mississippi Race, Becoming State's First Democratic Senator-Elect Since 1982

Detailed summary

Colom, a district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District, becomes the first Black Senator elected in the state since 1874 and the first Democratic Senator elected there…

Democratic challenger Scott Colom has defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in what was one of the tightest races of the 2026 midterms, marking another stunning victory for his party.

Colom, a district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District, becomes the first Black Senator elected in the state since 1874 and the first Democratic Senator elected there since 1982. Trump won Mississippi in the 2024 presidential election by nearly 23 points.

There are certain paths that a losing candidate can pursue, however, according to a blog post from Derek Muller, a professor and expert on election law at the University of Notre Dame. For one, Muller wrote, they could mount a legal challenge over decisions to include or leave out certain ballots in the count, for instance. Or they could appeal to the U.S. Senate to determine who should be seated in the chamber.

The Mississippi race remained too close to call for days after the election, with the two candidates split by only a razor-thin margin of as low as 0.1% with more than 95% of votes counted.

Both candidates expressed confidence that they would win leading up to the final vote count. Colom in a statement said he was “confident we will ultimately flip this seat,” while Hyde-Smith told her constituents, “I assure you, I will continue to be your U.S. Senator.”

Ahead of Election Day, the Senate race was filled with name-calling and tit-for-tat jabs over the candidates’ differing ideologies.

Colom called Hyde-Smith a “chicken” for refusing to debate, something she hasn’t done since 2018.

In response, Hyde-Smith’s campaign defended her by saying that there was “no point in debating someone so out of touch with Mississippi that he advocates for the sex change surgeries for children,” referencing Colom’s stance on gender-affirming care.

Colom, who Hyde-Smith also called “the most radical liberal” to run for office in Mississippi, in 2021 signed a letter opposing the criminalization of transgender people and…

Opening of the article, excerpted from Time. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.