Scott Colom pulled off the largest upset of the 2026 midterms. A district attorney from a state that has not sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1982 defeated a Republican incumbent and will become the first Black senator from Mississippi since Reconstruction.
The Associated Press projected Colom’s win over Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith on Wednesday, after more than a week of counting in a race that stayed close enough to hold the Senate majority in the balance. With 99% of the expected vote reported, Colom led 49.2% to 48.7%, a margin of about 4,700 votes, as ABC News reported. Hyde-Smith called Colom to concede, and her campaign posted a video concession message. Mississippi must certify the results by Friday.
Colom’s victory gives Democrats at least 55 Senate seats and their largest midterm gain since 1986. It also redraws the map of what is winnable. The party did not invest in the race until the final weeks, and the Cook Political Report moved its rating from solidly Republican to leaning Republican only last month. A Democrat had not been thought to have a real chance in the state at the start of the cycle.
How a district attorney from the Alabama line won
Colom, 43, is a district attorney for four counties along the Mississippi-Alabama state line and a seventh-generation Mississippian. He campaigned on cost-of-living and healthcare, arguing that Hyde-Smith had not delivered for the state. Former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Kamala Harris joined him on the trail in the closing weeks.
His path was not obvious. Hyde-Smith, 67, has held the seat since 2018 and was the first woman elected to represent Mississippi in Congress. She campaigned with President Donald Trump, who carried the state by a wide margin in 2024. Colom built a ground game that took him across the state, and he went viral with a campaign video that mocked Hyde-Smith over comments she made about choosing other options for proteins because of high beef prices.
The history is specific. Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982. The state has not sent a Black senator to Washington since 1875, when Blanche K. Bruce, who was born into slavery, held the seat. During Reconstruction, senators were chosen by state lawmakers, so Colom is also the first Black man popularly elected to the Senate in the state’s history, according to The Guardian.
Colom’s win is the eighth Democratic pickup of a Republican-held Senate seat this year. Our coverage of the national seat math tracked the earlier flips that made the majority possible.
What stands out is the gap between the state’s partisan history and the result. The race was not decided on election night. It was decided more than a week later, after absentee and provisional ballots were counted, with fewer than 5,000 votes separating the candidates, as CBS News reported.
Who is Scott Colom?
Colom is a district attorney for four counties along the Mississippi-Alabama state line and a seventh-generation Mississippian. He was 43 when he won. He campaigned on cost-of-living and healthcare, and he said the state had been let down by broken promises in Washington. “We were never a lost cause,” he told NBC News. “We were a betrayed cause.”
Hyde-Smith’s concession video said she respected the decision of Mississippi voters and wished Colom well, as WAPT reported. The state has until Friday to certify the result. Colom’s campaign planned a victory party Wednesday night, and the last uncalled Senate race of the cycle is in Alaska.
