Democrat Scott Colom, a district attorney in eastern Mississippi, defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Nov. 3 election, flipping a Senate seat Republicans had held since 1978.
The Associated Press called the race on Nov. 11 for Colom.
With 99 percent of the votes counted, The Associated Press said that Colom had 49.2 percent of the vote to Hyde-Smith’s 48.7 percent. Colom had 473,336 votes and Hyde-Smith had 468,667 votes.
Independent Ty Pinkins had 2.1 percent of the vote, or 20,234 votes.
Hyde-Smith posted on Nov. 11 on X, “Thank you, Mississippi.”
In a video, Hyde-Smith said the outcome wasn’t what her campaign worked and hoped for.
“I respect the decision of Mississippi voters,” she said, while congratulating Colom.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, congratulated Colom on the victory Wednesday.
“Congratulations to Senator-Elect Colom on his historic win and on becoming the first Democrat to win a Mississippi Senate seat in over four decades,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “We will work hand in hand with Scott to fight for Mississippians’ health care, costs, and future in the 120th Congress and look forward to welcoming him to our caucus.”
Colom is the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate election in Mississippi since Sen. John Stennis won his final term in 1982.
Colom held just a 43-vote lead after the early midterm counts with more than 945,000 votes cast.
Hyde-Smith was seeking a second full term. She was appointed to the Senate in April 2018 after Republican Sen. Thad Cochran stepped down in 2018 because of health concerns. Hyde-Smith won a special election that November to serve the rest of his term.
In 2020, she won a full term with 54.1 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Mike Espy by about 10 percentage points.
Colom drew late support from national Democrats, as the Senate Majority PAC announced a $1.2 million television ad buy and former Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned for him in his hometown of Columbus, Mississippi.
Lauren French, a spokeswoman for the Democratic-aligned super PAC, had said the ads would run through Election Day on Nov. 3 and would mark the group’s first spending in the race. The investment came as the Cook Political Report shifted its rating of the contest from “Solid Republican” to “Likely Republican.”
Harris addressed about 1,000 people at Columbus High School on Oct. 22, urging voters to “turn that anger into action.”
The Hyde-Smith campaign pointed out how long it took for the Democrats to spend money supporting Colom’s campaign.
“It took [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.] and his Super PACs 13 months to run a single ad for Scott Colom,” Nathan Calvert, communications director for the Hyde-Smith campaign, said in an email to The Epoch Times.
“Chuck knows what Mississippians know, Scott Colom is too liberal, he supports transgender surgeries for children, men in women’s restrooms and locker rooms, open borders, and higher taxes.”
The Democrats said they believed early in 2025 that they could compete in Mississippi, French said on X.
“None of this came out of nowhere. Democrats have talked about Mississippi all cycle,” French said. “Most notably Leader Schumer, who has made the case since the early days of 2025 that Democrats can and should compete in Mississippi.”
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