Mississippi has elected its first Black U.S. senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction and delivered Democrats a major upset in a rocky midterm election for the GOP. Scott Colom defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Deep South state that has been controlled mostly by white conservatives for generations.Hinds County voters cast about 2,400 provisional ballots but officials rejected about two-thirds of them, a share that is much higher than in other Mississippi counties. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.
Mississippi has no statewide count of outstanding ballots but it appears there are only handfuls of votes still to be counted by county officials, meaning Hyde-Smith has no realistic path to taking the lead.
Mississippi is expected to certify its final results by Friday. After that, a losing candidate would have to sue to seek a recount, which most analysts believe would be highly unlikely to change the result.
Democrats had already wrapped up 54 Senate seats and are heavily favored in Alaska. That sets the party up for a likely total of 56 seats in the incoming Congress, an eye-popping gain of nine compared to the current tally.
In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola claimed victory Wednesday over incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan after she expanded her lead to more than 1% margin when a new batch of mail ballots were tallied.
News organizations have not yet called a winner.
“Mary is on her way to a decisive victory,” she said in a statement.
Most of the remaining estimated 15% of the outstanding vote in Alaska is from remote predominantly Native American areas that favor Democrats.
Many analysts believe Peltola will clear the 50% mark that allows her to win without a ranked choice voting tabulation.
Colom, who becomes the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction, is perhaps the most unlikely winner of any 2026 Senate race.
Mississippi hasn’t elected a Democratic senator in four decades and President Trump carried the state by 23% in 2024.
Colom’s win was powered by extremely high Black turnout across the Deep South after the conservative Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act.
He also won a far larger share of white voters as Trump’s MAGA base splinters over rising costs and the unpopular war in Iran.
Colom captured the attention of national pundits with an extremely effective ad attacking Hyde-Smith for her tone-deaf response to rising beef prices that Mississippians could simply switch to a different source of protein.
“Pick another protein?” a voter says, flipping a burger on a grill. “Shiii — I’d rather pick another senator instead.”
Colom’s shocking win, along with Democratic victories in Texas, North Carolina and deep-red South Carolina, has sparked calls for Democrats to seriously contest more seats across the South, where Republicans have enjoyed outsized electoral advantages in recent decades.
Pundits say if Democrats can put some Southern states in play, it could dramatically shift the balance of power in Congress and presidential elections.
Georgia is now considered a blue-leaning state as Democrats have won most statewide elections in recent years and North Carolina is trending to Democrats after the GOP mostly held sway for many years.
Comments