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| Scott Colom (centre) in Columbus, Mississippi, on 18 August 2025. Photograph: Christopher Dilts/Scott Colom campaign |
Democrat Scott Colom has defeated Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s United States Senate election, becoming the first Black candidate elected to represent the state in the chamber since 1874.
The Associated Press called the contest in his favour on Wednesday, 11 November, more than a week after polling on 3 November. The result also gives Mississippi its first Democratic Senate election winner since John Stennis secured re-election in 1982.
Figures reported by Mississippi Today put Colom at 49.2 per cent and Hyde-Smith at 48.7 per cent when the race was called. Independent candidate Ty Pinkins also contested the seat. The returns remained uncertified.
Hyde-Smith subsequently conceded, congratulating Colom and wishing him well as he prepares to represent the state in Washington. Her concession followed several days in which county officials continued processing ballots and updating the count.
In victory remarks carried by Al Jazeera English, Colom directed attention towards the people who supported his campaign, saying that observers would give him more individual credit than he deserved.
"It's something that we did."
Colom said he had spent months predicting that the campaign would succeed, making that argument both during his travels and in news appearances. He described his own contribution as the willingness to pursue an outcome that others had considered unlikely.
"All I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this."
The result will bring Black representation back to Mississippi’s Senate delegation after an absence dating to the end of Blanche K. Bruce’s service in 1881.
The US Senate’s historical account records that Mississippi’s legislature elected Bruce in 1874. He entered the chamber in 1875 and completed his term in 1881. Born into slavery, Bruce later worked in education and politics before becoming a senator.
The distinction between those dates explains the reference to 1874: it marks the last election of a Black senator from Mississippi, rather than the year in which the state last had one serving in Washington.
Before Bruce, Mississippi sent Hiram Rhodes Revels to the Senate in 1870. Revels became the first African American to serve in Congress and remained in the Senate until March 1871.
Both men entered Congress during Reconstruction, the period following the American Civil War. State legislators selected senators at the time; the Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, established direct popular election to the chamber.
Colom’s victory therefore comes through a different electoral process from that of his two Black predecessors: a statewide vote rather than selection by Mississippi’s legislature.
The election also changes the partisan composition of the state’s delegation. Mississippi had repeatedly returned Republicans to the Senate for more than four decades, and Donald Trump carried the state by about 23 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.
Roll Call reported that Colom’s victory brought Democrats and their allies to at least 55 seats in the next Senate. His win converts a Republican-held seat as the parties prepare for the new Congress.
Colom, 43, built his political career as a prosecutor in north Mississippi. His campaign biography says he grew up in Columbus and first won election as district attorney in 2015, defeating an incumbent who had held that office for 27 years.
He subsequently won re-election twice. Before becoming district attorney, he had also worked as a prosecutor and judge.
Colom launched his Senate campaign in September 2025. His platform emphasised reducing household costs, protecting hospitals and creating jobs in Mississippi.
Hyde-Smith, 67, entered the Senate through an appointment in 2018 and won a special election later that year. Trump campaigned for her near the end of this year’s contest, seeking to retain the Republican-held seat.
The prolonged count reflected Mississippi’s processing of absentee and provisional ballots, known locally as affidavit ballots. Updates from county election officials increased Colom’s lead after the candidates finished election night closely matched.
The race call preceded completion of the formal certification process. In a 4 November election update, Mississippi’s Secretary of State’s office explained that county officials administer the elections and had until 13 November to submit certified results.
Supporters gathered at Tougaloo College for Colom’s victory address on Wednesday night. WLBT reported that the crowd assembled outside Woodworth Chapel on the campus, where they cheered the senator-elect.
Colom used the address to recall the confidence he had expressed during the campaign and to credit those who had worked towards the result.
"I had the courage to believe in Mississippi."
He said the campaign offered a chance to demonstrate the state’s importance to the rest of the country.
"I had the courage to understand that we can show the country that Mississippi matters."