Scott Colom unseats Mississippi Senator Hyde-Smith in historic win

Scott Colom has won the closely contested Mississippi Senate race, ousting Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, in a major victory for Democrats in the ruby-red US state.

Colom emerged as the winner on Wednesday, following an extended vote count, and will be Mississippi’s first Black US senator since the post-Civil War Reconstruction.

Hyde-Smith conceded in a video posted to social media, saying she respects the decision of Mississippi voters even though the result was “not the outcome we worked for or hoped for.”

The incumbent lawmaker congratulated Scott Colom and wished him well “as he takes on the tremendous responsibility of representing our great state.”

Colom, who has served as the district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District since 2016, is the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the state since 1982.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have congratulated Colom, whom President Donald Trump called a “shameless phony who pretends to be a moderate” at a campaign rally in Corinth.

He worked as a Lowndes County justice court judge, an Aberdeen municipal court judge, a Columbus city prosecutor, and was nominated for a federal judicial position in 2022.

President Joe Biden selected Colom to serve as a US District Court judge for the Northern District of Mississippi, a nomination that received bipartisan support.

In April 2023, the now-defeated Hyde-Smith declared she would not return her “blue slip” (used to signal approval or disapproval of nominees) to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Colom wrote to Hyde-Smith, addressing her grievances against him, but the nomination eventually stalled and officially returned to the White House in January 2024.

Hyde-Smith prematurely claimed victory during an election night speech, saying, “I blocked Scott Colom from being a judge, and you (supporters) blocked him from being a senator.”

With Colom’s historic triumph, the Democratic Party will have 55 seats when the Senate reconvenes in January, after flipping 8 seats in the midterms.

The Democrats, however, could gain one more seat as the Senate race in Alaska remains uncalled. As of late on 11 November, Mary Peltola led Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan by 3,900 votes.