Scott Colom Wins Mississippi Senate Seat in Historic Upset

Democrat Scott Colom has won election to the US Senate from Mississippi, defeating Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in one of the biggest upsets of the 2026 midterm elections.

The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday, more than a week after polling day, after local officials finished counting the outstanding absentee and provisional ballots that had kept the outcome uncertain. Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, becomes Mississippi’s first Black senator since the Reconstruction era and the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the state since John Stennis in 1982.

The result extends the Democrats’ gains from last week’s elections and gives them a 55-44 advantage in the Senate, with only the race in Alaska still to be decided.

A race decided by a few thousand votes

The Mississippi contest was the closest Senate race in the country this year. The latest media-tabulated results showed Colom ahead by more than 4,500 votes, or 0.5 percentage points, out of more than 950,000 cast, with about 99 per cent of the vote counted. At times during the count, his lead was only a few dozen votes.

Hyde-Smith, 67, who was first elected to the Senate in 2018, had been seeking a second full term. She conceded the race in a video posted to social media shortly after the Associated Press call.

“While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters,” she said. “I want to congratulate Scott Colom and wish him well as he takes on the tremendous responsibility of representing our great state.”

Mississippi certifies its results on 3 December. The new Congress convenes on 3 January 2027.

A historic first for Mississippi

Colom will be the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction. The last Black candidate elected to the Senate from the state was Blanche Bruce in 1874. He is also the first Black candidate elected to statewide office in Mississippi since that era, according to CNN.

The milestone comes in a state with the highest share of Black voters in the country, at close to 40 per cent. NPR reported that the result was driven by a surge in Black voter turnout, in a midterm full of stunning upsets for Democrats.

It is also the end of a long drought for Mississippi Democrats. No Democrat had won a Senate seat in the state since Stennis, who served for 41 years, left office in 1989. The Cook Political Report had rated the race as Likely Republican going into election night, and President Donald Trump won Mississippi by nearly 23 points in 2024.

How Colom won

Colom made the cost of living the centrepiece of his campaign, branding his opponent “Cindy High-Prices” as prices rose across the rural, agriculture-heavy state. His campaign turned a remark by Hyde-Smith into one of the race’s defining moments: asked about high beef prices earlier this year, the senator, a cattle rancher and former state agriculture commissioner, said there were “so many other proteins to choose from.”

Colom’s campaign answered with a viral advertisement featuring voters expressing disbelief at the suggestion, before concluding it was time to “pick another senator.”

On the campaign trail, Colom said he focused on reaching voters through town halls and visits to public housing, festivals and food trucks. “We did it the hard way, the grassroots way,” he said.

He told Reuters in an October interview that Mississippi voters felt betrayed by Trump policies such as the war in Iran, which has driven up fuel prices. He told NPR earlier this month that a lack of investment from national Democrats until the last minute was a mistake.

“The reality is, Mississippi has never been a lost cause, we’ve been a betrayed cause,” he said. “The Democratic Party has not been trying to win Mississippi. Let’s stop kidding ourselves, right? They spent hundreds of millions of dollars in other states. They spent almost nothing in Mississippi.”

Unlike most other contested Senate races that flipped, Mississippi saw little national money or attention until the closing days. That changed in the final week, when Trump campaigned in the state for Hyde-Smith, while former Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic Senators Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Cory Booker of New Jersey visited for Colom.

The two candidates also had history. In 2023, Hyde-Smith blocked Colom’s nomination by former President Joe Biden to serve as a federal district judge in northern Mississippi, citing his position on transgender issues. Mississippi’s other US senator, Republican Roger Wicker, supported his nomination for the post.

What the result means for the Senate

With Colom’s win, the Democratic caucus in the new Senate stands at 55 seats — 53 Democrats plus two independents who caucus with them — to 44 for the Republicans. The Democrats were projected to win control of the Senate in the midterms, and the Mississippi result widens that majority.

Reuters reported that the Democrats have also gained 41 seats in the House of Representatives so far, holding an advantage of 254 to 168, with 13 races yet to be called. In losing control of both chambers, Trump faces a Democratic-controlled Congress for the first time in either of his two terms.

The Mississippi race was also shadowed by a controversy over the state’s voter rolls. Mississippi used credit data to flag 200,000 voters before the election, a process that drew scrutiny as ballots were counted. The race was still uncalled a week after polling day, with Colom narrowly ahead as officials worked through the remaining ballots.

For Democrats, the win caps a midterm sweep that few forecasters predicted in a state Trump carried so comfortably two years ago. For Mississippi, it ends more than 150 years without a Black senator — and more than four decades without a Democrat in the Senate.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Scott Colom?

Colom is a 43-year-old district attorney from Mississippi. He defeated Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in the 2026 Senate race and will become the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction.

When will Mississippi certify the result?

Mississippi certifies its election results on 3 December 2026. The new Congress, including Colom, convenes on 3 January 2027.

Which Senate race is still uncalled?

Only Alaska remains uncalled after the Mississippi result. The Democrats hold 55 seats in the new Senate to the Republicans’ 44.