Scott Colom wins Mississippi, becoming the state’s first Black senator in more than 150 years
The 43-year-old district attorney defeated Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith by 4,585 votes after eight days of counting, giving Democrats at least 55 Senate seats and ending a wait that began when Reconstruction ended.
Key points
- On Wednesday 11 November 2026, the Associated Press called the Mississippi Senate race for Democrat Scott Colom, eight days after the 3 November midterm vote. Associated Press
- Colom defeated the Republican incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith, by 4,585 votes, 49.2 per cent to 48.7 per cent, with 99 per cent of ballots counted. 4
- Colom is the first Black senator from Mississippi since the Reconstruction era, and the first Black senator the state’s voters have chosen directly. 1
- He is also the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Mississippi since John C. Stennis in 1982. 3
- Hyde-Smith conceded on Wednesday evening; Colom gave his victory speech at Tougaloo College in Jackson, opening with a tribute to Hiram Revels. 2
Three readings of the same result
Same facts, different frames. Each reading names its outlets and what it emphasizes.
A barrier falling, eight days late.
The Western telling, carried by the Associated Press, the full midterm results and the national American press, treats the result as a seismic upset and a historic first.
Key detail The emphasis falls on the numbers, the 4,585-vote margin, the 99 per cent counted, the eight days of waiting, and on the concession…
A conservative stronghold turning blue.
The East Asian telling, carried by South Korea’s Korea Times on the Associated Press wire, by India’s ANI wire and by Malaysia’s Malay Mail on an AFP report, keeps the same facts but changes the frame: a historic upset in a traditionally conservative state, and a seat that had looked safe for the Republicans.
Key detail The Korean and Indian accounts stress the scale of the surprise, a Democrat winning where Trump won by more than 22 points, and…
A life story, from a Guyanese classroom to the Senate.
The Global South telling, led by Al Jazeera’s profile of the senator-elect and by Guyana’s Kaieteur News, keeps the focus on the man and the lineage.
Key detail Al Jazeera traces the line from Hiram Revels in 1870 and Blanche K.
Sources by lens: 3 West, 3 East, 3 Global South. See every source
The story
Eight days of counting end a 150-year wait
The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday 11 November, eight days after Mississippi voted in the midterm elections of 3 November. Democrat Scott Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney from Columbus, had defeated the Republican incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith, by 4,585 votes, 49.2 per cent to 48.7 per cent, with 99 per cent of ballots counted. Hyde-Smith conceded the same evening. Hours later Colom stood at Tougaloo College, the historically Black college in Jackson, and opened his victory speech with a tribute to Hiram Revels, the minister who became the first Black United States senator in 1870, from Mississippi. The result makes Colom the first Black senator from the state since the Reconstruction era, and the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Mississippi since John C. Stennis in 1982. It also completes one of the most startling upsets of the 2026 midterms: a seat in a state Donald Trump carried by more than 22 points in 2024, falling to a Democrat.
A prosecutor, a 4,585-vote margin, and a count that took eight days
Colom, a seventh-generation Mississippian, has served as district attorney for the state’s 16th Judicial District since 2016, after becoming the first Black American elected to that office in 2015. A Millsaps College graduate, he spent 16 months teaching English in a village in Guyana in 2005 through the WorldTeach programme, an experience he has said shaped his view of public service. He and his wife, Nadia, have two daughters. The count was slow because officials spent days processing absentee and affidavit ballots across the state’s 82 counties; the Associated Press waited until Wednesday to call the race, and CNN and NBC News followed. The win is the eighth Senate seat Democrats have flipped from Republicans in these midterms, and it gives them at least 55 seats in the 100-member chamber, with one race, in Alaska, still outstanding. Mississippi has the largest Black population share of any American state, about 37 per cent, and no Black candidate had been elected statewide there since Reconstruction. The last Black senator from the state was Blanche K. Bruce, born into slavery, who was elected in 1874 and served from 1875 to 1881. Before him, Hiram Revels served in 1870. Both were chosen by the state legislature; direct election began only in 1913, making Colom the first Black senator Mississippi voters have chosen themselves. State officials have until 13 November to certify the result, and Mississippi has no provision for a statewide recount.
What is still unknown before certification?
The certified final margin is not yet in: the 4,585-vote lead rests on 99 per cent of ballots counted, and the formal certification is due by 13 November. It is not known whether Hyde-Smith will pursue any legal challenge to the count, though the state offers no statewide recount. Colom’s committee assignments have not been set, and he has not yet said which legislation he will take up first when the new Congress is seated in January 2027. The deeper question is also unresolved: whether the result marks a durable shift in Mississippi politics or a one-off produced by an unusual year; high Black turnout, discontent over the cost of living and health care, and a national mood that punished the party in power. The final piece of the Senate picture is missing too, with the Alaska race still uncalled.
Representation, arithmetic, and a state that had waited 150 years
Three things make this result matter beyond one seat. The first is representation: in the state with the largest Black population in America, no Black person had been elected statewide since the 1870s, and the Senate seat had been held by white conservatives for generations. Colom’s win closes a gap that survived the civil rights movement, the Voting Rights Act and four decades of Democratic presidential losses in the state. The second is arithmetic: with at least 55 seats, Democrats hold a cushion that changes what they can confirm, pass and block, and the eighth flip turns a narrow majority into a working one; a question the party asked itself all year, whether it could win the Senate at all. The third is the signal it sends about the midterms themselves. Democrats campaigned on the cost of living and health care, and they have now taken a seat in a state where the Republican president won by more than 22 points two years ago and campaigned personally for the incumbent. That is not a result a party can dismiss as a fluke in one district; it is a verdict delivered statewide, in the Deep South, by the voters of the most conservative state in the union.
Why did Colom win? Turnout, the cost of living, and a count that rewarded patience
Colom won for three reasons that compound. The first is mobilisation: Mississippi’s Black voters, about 37 per cent of the state, turned out in numbers the Republican campaign had not priced in, and Colom’s own history, the first Black district attorney in his circuit, gave them a candidate who belonged to the state’s story. The second is the message: Democrats fought these midterms on the cost of living and health care, and in one of the poorest states in the union that message landed where talk of Washington did not. The third is the incumbent’s campaign: Hyde-Smith, seeking a second full term with Trump’s endorsement, was hurt by missteps during the race, and by a national mood that punished the party holding the White House. The slow count then worked in Colom’s favour, absentee and affidavit ballots, counted last, widened his lead day by day until the networks could call it. None of this makes Mississippi a Democratic state. It makes it a state where a Democrat can win when the turnout, the message and the moment align, and that is a narrower claim, but a real one.
A cushion in the Senate, a new national figure, and a Republican reckoning
The consequences run in three directions. In Washington, a 55-seat majority lets Democrats confirm judges and officials without holding every member of their caucus, and lets them lose a vote or two on difficult legislation, a cushion the party has not enjoyed for years. In Mississippi, Colom becomes a national figure overnight, and the state’s politics now has a living proof that a statewide Democratic victory is possible, which changes the calculations of every candidate, donor and organiser looking at 2028, and raises the question whether the party can deliver on the promises that won it the majority. And inside the Republican Party, the loss of a safe seat in the Deep South will force a reckoning: whether the party’s problem in this cycle was the messenger, the message, or the national mood; and whether a state Trump carried by more than 22 points can be taken for granted again. The risk for Democrats is over-reading the result. Mississippi remains one of the most conservative states in the country, and a single victory, however historic, does not redraw its map.
What happens next: certification, Alaska, and a January swearing-in
Mississippi must certify the result by 13 November, and with no statewide recount on the books the 4,585-vote margin is expected to stand. Attention then turns to Alaska, the last uncalled Senate race, which will fix the final balance of the chamber. Colom will be sworn in with the new Congress in January 2027, when his committee assignments will be set and his first legislative priorities will become clear. The early test will be whether he keeps the campaign’s focus on the cost of living and health care, or whether a Senate seat pulls him toward the national agenda. The longer test is Mississippi itself: whether the coalition that elected him, Black voters, younger voters, and voters squeezed by prices, holds together for the next race, or whether 2026 is remembered as the year the exception proved the rule.
What we agree on, and what remains open
Established
- The Associated Press called the race for Scott Colom on Wednesday 11 November 2026, eight days after the 3 November vote.
- He beat the Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by 4,585 votes, 49.2 per cent to 48.7 per cent, with 99 per cent of ballots counted.
- Hyde-Smith conceded the same evening.
- Colom is the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction and the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state since 1982.
- Democrats now hold at least 55 Senate seats, with the Alaska race still outstanding.
Contested
- Whether the result marks a lasting realignment in Mississippi or a one-off produced by turnout and the national mood.
- Whether Black voter mobilisation or broader discontent over the cost of living did more of the work.
- How much Hyde-Smith’s campaign missteps contributed to the defeat.
Still open
- The final certified margin.
- Whether Hyde-Smith will pursue any legal challenge.
- Which committees Colom will sit on.
- What legislation he will take up first.
- Whether the coalition that elected him holds together for the next race.
What to watch
Questions, answered
Scott Colom is a 43-year-old Democrat from Columbus, Mississippi, who has served as district attorney for the state’s 16th Judicial District since 2016. A seventh-generation Mississippian and Millsaps College graduate, he spent 16 months teaching English in a village in Guyana in 2005. He became the first Black American elected district attorney in his circuit in 2015, and he is married to Nadia Colom, with whom he has two daughters.
Colom is the first Black senator from Mississippi since the Reconstruction era, and the first Black senator Mississippi voters have chosen directly. Hiram Revels, the first Black senator in American history, served from Mississippi in 1870, and Blanche K. Bruce, born into slavery, served from 1875 to 1881; but both were chosen by the state legislature. He is also the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state since 1982.
Very close. Colom won 49.2 per cent of the vote to 48.7 per cent for the Republican incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith; a margin of 4,585 votes with 99 per cent of ballots counted. The Associated Press did not call the race until Wednesday 11 November, eight days after election day, because officials needed days to process absentee and affidavit ballots across Mississippi’s 82 counties.
It gives Democrats at least 55 seats in the 100-member Senate, with one race in Alaska still outstanding. It is the eighth Senate seat Democrats have flipped from Republicans in the 2026 midterms, turning a narrow majority into a working one with room to confirm appointments and absorb the occasional defection. Colom will be sworn in with the new Congress in January 2027.