The Associated Press called Mississippi's Senate race for Democrat Scott Colom late Wednesday afternoon, ending a week of ballot counting and one of the most surprising results of the 2026 midterms. Colom, a 43-year-old local prosecutor, defeated Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by roughly 4,600 votes.
A week of ballot counting
Election day was November 3, but the margin was narrow enough that county officials spent days processing absentee and affidavit ballots. Each batch of counted ballots extended Colom's lead, and by the time the race was called his advantage had grown to nearly 5,000 votes in some tallies. Hyde-Smith, 67, was seeking her second full term. Governor Tate Reeves, a Republican, congratulated the senator-elect.
Why the race turned
President Donald Trump won Mississippi by about 22 points in 2024, and few analysts rated the seat as competitive at the start of the year. Two things changed that. Turnout among Black voters rose sharply in a state where they make up a large share of the electorate, and the cost of living dominated the closing weeks. Hyde-Smith appeared to brush off high beef prices by suggesting shoppers could pick other proteins, and Colom turned the remark into a 30-second advertisement in which voters said they would "pick another senator instead". The spot circulated nationwide.
What it means in Washington
Colom will be the first Democrat to represent Mississippi in the Senate since 1982 and the first Black senator from the state since post-Civil War Reconstruction. He is also the first Black candidate elected statewide there in more than 150 years. Three years ago Hyde-Smith blocked his nomination to a federal judgeship, a delay that raised his profile at home.
His win lifts the incoming Democratic Senate caucus to at least 55 seats, part of a wave that also delivered the House. Alaska's Senate race has still not been called. Colom gave his victory speech Wednesday at Tougaloo College, a historically Black campus near Jackson, and takes office in January. For Republicans, the loss means defending a state they had treated as safe for a generation, in a cycle where affordability, not ideology, decided close races.