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Democrat Scott Colom wins Mississippi’s US Senate seat, the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction
Developing
- What happened
- Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi after more than a week of vote counting.
- Why it matters
- He is the state’s first Black senator since the 1870s and the first Democrat to win a Senate seat there since 1982.
- What’s next
- Democrats now hold 55 Senate seats to the Republicans’ 44, with a close race in Alaska still being counted.
How this story developed
- 11:12First report
- 13:262nd source
- 13:26Confirmed
- 15:15+2 outlets in 41 min
- 16:335th source
- 11:12First reportAl Jazeera English
- 13:262nd sourceFrance 24
- 13:26ConfirmedWas: Single source
- 15:15+2 outlets in 41 minNPR World and BBC News World
- 16:33Latest5th sourceThe Guardian World
Full story
A narrow win
Scott Colom, a Democrat, has won the US Senate race in Mississippi, one of the most reliably Republican states in the country. The result was declared late on Wednesday, more than a week after the midterm elections. According to Al Jazeera, he beat the Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, an ally of President Donald Trump, by fewer than 5,000 votes with 99% of ballots counted.
Hyde-Smith had led in the polls, and Trump carried the state by more than 20 points in 2024. The Guardian called the result a stunning upset.
What it changes
Colom will be Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction, the period after the Civil War; the last one left office in the 1870s. France 24 noted that the state has been run mostly by white conservatives for generations, although it has the largest share of Black residents of any US state.
It is also the first time since 1982 that a Democrat has won a Senate seat in Mississippi. Al Jazeera reported that the win puts the Democrats’ majority in the Senate at 55 seats to 44, with a tight race in Alaska, where Democrat Mary Peltola leads by a slim margin, still being counted. The outlet added that only 14 Black senators have ever been elected or appointed in the United States, and that Colom will be one of seven new ones.
Who he is
Colom is 43 and a lawyer. He served as a prosecutor in Mississippi from 2016 until this year. He was born in the city of Columbus into a family of lawyers, is married and has two children, and his identical twin brother Andrew played a major part in his campaign, Al Jazeera reported.
He spoke to supporters at his victory party in Jackson, at the historically Black Tougaloo College, and said there had been times when he was tired and felt he could not keep going.
“I had the courage to believe in Mississippi. I had the courage to understand that we can show the country that Mississippi matters.”
Scott Colom, Al Jazeera English
On Thursday he thanked his supporters again in a series of posts on X, writing that the victory “belongs to all of us”.