Mississippi has delivered the biggest surprise of the 2026 midterm elections. Democrat Scott Colom has defeated Republican incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in the state’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, becoming Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction and the first Democrat the state has sent to the Senate since 1982. The result was called on Wednesday, November 11, more than a week after Election Day, after days of counting absentee and provisional ballots across the Magnolia State.
It is hard to overstate how unexpected this outcome was. Mississippi is one of the most reliably Republican states in the country, a place President Donald Trump carried by nearly 23 points in 2024 and where Hyde-Smith had consistently led in opinion polls. Trump campaigned for Hyde-Smith in the race. Yet when the final ballots were tallied, Colom held a narrow but growing lead that held up through the count, and the Associated Press, CNN, and NBC News all projected him the winner. Hyde-Smith conceded in a short video message posted online, saying she respected the decision of Mississippi voters and congratulating her opponent.
Colom celebrated with supporters at Tougaloo College, a historically Black college in Jackson, on Wednesday night. He opened his victory address with a tribute to Hiram Revels, the first Black U.S. senator, who also represented Mississippi more than a century and a half ago. For a state shaped by slavery, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement, and home to the largest share of Black residents of any state in America, the moment carried a weight that went far beyond one Senate seat. It also capped a remarkable night for Democrats nationally, giving the party at least 55 seats in the next Senate.
A Race Nobody Expected to Be Close
For most of the campaign, the Mississippi Senate race was treated as a safe Republican hold. Hyde-Smith, 67, had served in the Senate since 2018, when she was first appointed and then elected, and she had twice defeated Democrat Mike Espy, a former agriculture secretary who had also been Mississippi’s first Black congressman since Reconstruction. She was seeking a second full term, and she was the first woman to represent Mississippi in the Senate. The polling, the state’s recent voting history, and the national environment all pointed the same way: a comfortable Republican win.
Colom, 43, a district attorney from Columbus, ran a campaign built around the issues Democrats emphasized across the country this year: the cost of living, health care, and government accountability. He is a seventh-generation Mississippian and a Millsaps College graduate who serves as district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th judicial district. His campaign drew support from national Democratic figures, including former President Bill Clinton, who campaigned for him in the race’s final days. Outside groups and party organizations poured money into Mississippi as the contest tightened, turning what had once looked like a long-shot bid into one of the most closely watched Senate races in the nation.
What changed the race, according to reporting from the state, was a combination of forces: a large Black electorate that turned out in strong numbers, deep discontent with the economy, and missteps by Hyde-Smith during the campaign. Mississippi has the largest Black population share of any U.S. state, and Colom’s campaign capitalized on that base while also reaching rural voters with a message about opportunity and accountability. The result was a wave of voter turnout that local reporting described as nearly unprecedented, and a race that stayed too close to call for more than a week.
Days of Counting Before the Call
Election night did not settle the race. As ballots were counted in the days that followed, Colom’s lead grew steadily as election workers tallied mail-in ballots and affidavit ballots, the name Mississippi gives to provisional ballots cast when a voter’s eligibility needs to be verified. The back-and-forth over the count even flirted with legal action before the projections finally came.
CNN called the race for Colom on Wednesday afternoon, November 11, and NBC News followed later that evening with similar vote totals. The Associated Press called the contest in Colom’s favor the same day, after local election officials had spent several days processing the remaining absentee and provisional ballots. According to totals reported by USA Today and the Clarion Ledger on Wednesday evening, Colom led by about half a percentage point, at least 4,000 votes ahead, with counting still to be finalized. Mississippi does not require a 50-percent-plus-one majority in a federal race, and the state has no recount process, so a narrow plurality is enough to win.
State officials said final certified totals were not expected until Friday at 5 p.m., so the exact final margin may still shift slightly as the last ballots are processed. But the outcome itself is settled: Hyde-Smith called Colom to concede earlier on Wednesday, according to his campaign, and then posted her concession video. Colom declared victory that evening, and the networks’ projections, the AP call, and the concession together closed one of the closest and most closely watched Senate races of the year.
Who Is Scott Colom?
Scott Colom is a Columbus native and a longtime local prosecutor. As district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th judicial district, he built a reputation in the courtroom before deciding to run for Hyde-Smith’s seat. He is 43 years old, a seventh-generation Mississippian, and a graduate of Millsaps College in Jackson. His campaign leaned heavily on his roots in the state and his record as a prosecutor, presenting him as a homegrown candidate who understood Mississippi’s communities rather than a national figure parachuted into the race.
His message stayed close to kitchen-table concerns. Like Democrats across the country in this midterm cycle, Colom campaigned on improving the cost of living and health care for residents, and on expanding opportunities in rural communities that often feel overlooked. He also emphasized government accountability, a theme that resonated in a year when voters in many states seemed eager to send a message to Washington. The campaign drew national attention and national help, but its core pitch was local: a Mississippi prosecutor who would fight for Mississippi families.
Colom will be one of nearly a dozen new Democratic senators set to take office in January. He will arrive in Washington as a freshman senator with an extraordinary backstory — the man who flipped one of the reddest states in America — and with expectations to match. His first task will be building a Senate office, hiring staff, and preparing for a term in a chamber where Democrats will hold a majority but where every vote still matters. His victory speech at Tougaloo College made clear that he sees the win as bigger than himself, a tribute to the generations of Mississippians who fought for a voice in American democracy and never lived to see a moment like this one.
145 Years of History
The historical weight of Colom’s win is what makes it more than an ordinary upset. He will be Mississippi’s first Black senator since Blanche K. Bruce, who was born into slavery and served in the Senate until 1881. Bruce was elected by the Mississippi legislature in 1874 and served a full six-year term from 1875 to 1881, becoming the first African American to serve a full Senate term and the first to preside over the Senate. Before Bruce, Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first African American member of the United States Senate when he took the oath of office on February 25, 1870, filling the remaining months of an unexpired term. Both men were chosen by the state legislature, not by voters, because before the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified in 1913, state legislatures selected U.S. senators.
That distinction makes Colom’s victory historic in a second way: he is the first Black Mississippian ever sent to the Senate by a direct, statewide popular vote. The gap between Bruce leaving the Senate in 1881 and Colom’s arrival in 2027 spans roughly 145 years without a Black senator from Mississippi, a span that covers the end of Reconstruction, the rise of Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, and the decades since. Colom himself nodded to that history in his victory speech, opening with a tribute to Revels, the minister who first broke the barrier.
Colom is also the first Democrat Mississippi has elected to the U.S. Senate since John Stennis won in 1982, and the last time the state chose a new Democratic senator was 1947, when the winner was a staunch segregationist. The state had not sent a Democrat to the Senate in more than 44 years. For a state whose politics have been controlled mostly by white conservatives for generations, despite having the largest share of Black residents of any state, the result is a seismic shift, in the words of the Associated Press, and one that will echo through the country as well as through Mississippi.
What the Win Means for the Senate
Mississippi was the eighth Senate seat Democrats flipped from Republicans in this year’s midterm elections, and it created a minimum 55-seat Senate majority going into 2027, with votes still being counted in Alaska. The Associated Press and other outlets reported the balance at 55 seats for Democrats against 44 for Republicans, with the Alaska race still undecided at the time of the call. Democrats had already secured control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections before the Mississippi result was finalized, and Colom’s win widened their margin in the upper chamber.
A 55-seat majority matters in practical terms. It gives the Democratic leadership more room to confirm nominees, move legislation, and absorb defections on close votes. It also changes the dynamics of the next two years, with a Democratic Congress facing a Republican president. The midterms delivered a rebuke to the administration’s agenda in many states, and Mississippi, of all places, became the exclamation point. Prominent Democrats across the country reacted quickly to the news, framing the result as both a historic breakthrough and one of the most significant victories of the 2026 midterms.
Why Mississippi Flipped
No single factor explains an upset of this size, but the reporting points to several forces coming together at once. The first is turnout. Mississippi’s electorate includes the largest share of Black voters of any state, and Colom’s campaign mobilized that base while also appealing to rural voters and to Mississippians frustrated with the cost of living. The wave of turnout in this race was described by local reporters as nearly unprecedented, and in a close race, turnout is often the difference between winning and losing.
The second is the economy. Colom campaigned relentlessly on the cost of living and health care, the same message Democrats carried across the country in this cycle, and it appears to have landed in a state where many families feel squeezed. Hyde-Smith’s campaign, by contrast, was tied to a national Republican message that did not seem to answer voters’ everyday concerns as directly. When voters are worried about prices and medical bills, a candidate who talks about those worries in concrete terms has an advantage.
The third is Hyde-Smith herself. Reporting on the race noted her missteps as she sought a second full term, and her campaign never quite found its footing as the race tightened. She had led in the polls for months, but the polls did not capture the surge that carried Colom over the finish line. Her concession was gracious — a two-minute video in which she said she respected the decision of Mississippi voters — but it closed a campaign that will be studied as a cautionary tale about taking any race for granted.
What Happens Next
Colom is scheduled to take office in January 2027, when the new Congress is sworn in. Between now and then, his team will build out a Senate office, and Mississippi’s election officials will certify the final results. The transition will be watched closely, both for what Colom does in his first weeks and for how the state’s political establishment responds to a result few of them expected.
For Mississippi, the win opens a new chapter. The state will have a senator who campaigned on lowering costs, improving health care, and expanding opportunity in rural communities, and voters will be watching to see whether those promises turn into action. For the country, the result is a reminder that American politics can still surprise, and that the deepest red states are not immune to change when turnout surges and the right candidate meets the moment.
The history books will record November 11, 2026, as the day Mississippi elected its first Black senator since Reconstruction. But the more interesting question is what comes after the history-making moment. Colom’s victory speech at Tougaloo College was a celebration, but it was also a promise. Now he has six years to keep it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won the Mississippi U.S. Senate race in 2026? Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. The Associated Press, CNN, and NBC News projected Colom the winner on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, after days of counting absentee and provisional ballots, and Hyde-Smith conceded the same day.
Why is Scott Colom’s win historic? Colom will be Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction. The state’s last Black senator was Blanche K. Bruce, who served until 1881, and its first Black senator was Hiram Revels, who took office in 1870. Colom is also the first Black Mississippian ever elected to the Senate by a direct statewide popular vote, since Revels and Bruce were chosen by the state legislature.
When was the last time Mississippi elected a Democrat to the Senate? Colom is the first Democrat Mississippi has elected to the U.S. Senate since John Stennis in 1982. The state had not sent a Democrat to the Senate in more than 44 years.
How close was the race? The race was very close. According to totals reported by USA Today and the Clarion Ledger on Wednesday evening, Colom led by about half a percentage point, at least 4,000 votes ahead, with final certified totals expected on Friday. Mississippi does not require a majority in a federal race and has no recount process.
What does the win mean for control of the Senate? Mississippi was the eighth Senate seat Democrats flipped from Republicans in the 2026 midterms, giving Democrats at least a 55-seat majority in the next Senate, with the Alaska race still undecided at the time of the call. Democrats had already secured control of both chambers of Congress in the elections.
Related reading
- Democrats Sweep Congress 2026: What Happens Next
- After Election Day: How Votes Are Counted and Certified in 2026
- Midterm Elections November 3, 2026: What’s on the Ballot
Sources: USA Today, Associated Press, Clarion Ledger, U.S. Senate: Hiram Revels, U.S. Senate: Blanche K. Bruce, BusinessWorld, USA Today: Democratic reaction.