Democrat Scott Colom has defeated Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s US Senate election, giving Democrats a breakthrough in a state that has not elected one of their candidates to the chamber since 1982.
The Associated Press called the race Wednesday, more than a week after Election Day. Colom, a district attorney in northern Mississippi, will become the state’s first Black US senator since Reconstruction. The last Democrat elected to a Mississippi Senate seat was John Stennis.
Hyde-Smith conceded in a video message, congratulating Colom and saying she respected the voters’ decision. NPR reporting described a prolonged count that included the processing of absentee and affidavit ballots, also known as provisional ballots.
Mississippi Today reported that Colom led by 4,645 votes Wednesday night with 99 per cent of precincts reporting. That was a reported election-night-style tally, not a certified final margin. A news organisation’s race call identifies the projected winner from available results; it does not replace the official certification process.
Colom addressed supporters at Tougaloo College and said he intended to represent people who had voted for him as well as those who had not. Republican Governor Tate Reeves also congratulated him and said he looked forward to working together.
Hyde-Smith first entered the Senate in 2018 and won a full term in 2020. Her defeat marks a significant change in Mississippi’s representation, alongside the historic milestone of Colom’s election. The immediate next steps are the formal completion of the election process and preparation for the responsibilities of the Senate seat.
Archive image: Scott Colom in an October 12, 2026 interview. Video still by The Contrarian, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Cropped from the original; not an election-night photograph.
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