Democrat Colom becomes Mississippi's first Black senator since Reconstruction era

Democratic challenger Scott Colom has defeated incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Mississippi election for the US Senate, media projected on Wednesday, making him the Southern state's first Black senator since the Reconstruction ‌era that followed the US Civil War.

The Mississippi Senate race was one of the final races to be called after the elections. The contest was so tight that Colom at times led the vote count by only a few dozen votes.

The latest media-tabulated results showed him ahead by more than 4,500 votes, or 0.5 percentage points.

Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, became the first Democrat to win a Mississippi Senate seat since John Stennis in 1982. He ⁠harnessed frustration over the cost of living with a breakout campaign ad in which voters ridiculed Hyde-Smith's suggestion that consumers could choose other "proteins" instead of paying rising beef prices.

Hyde-Smith, 67, who was appointed to the Senate in 2018 and won a special election later that year, had consistently led opinion polls in a state that US President Donald Trump won by nearly 23 points in 2024. Trump campaigned in Mississippi for Hyde-Smith near the end of the race.

"While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters. I want to congratulate Scott Colom and wish him well," Hyde-Smith said in a video posted on social media.