MISSISSIPPI MATTERS

Dem Declares Shock Red State Victory and Dares MAGA to Sue

The Democratic Senate candidate in Mississippi believes he will prevail in the tight race.

Democrat Scott Colom said he is confident he will become Mississippi’s next senator as the race in the deep-red state remains stunningly close.

Colom spoke at a press conference on Wednesday morning about his race against Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Should he prevail, it would be one of the most shocking upsets of the 2026 midterms, as the race was largely considered a safe red seat but showed signs of trouble for the GOP in the final stretch.

As of Wednesday morning, Colom was leading Hyde-Smith by just 43 votes with more than 95 percent of the vote counted.

But Colom argued that, looking at the results still to come in, the momentum was on his side.

“The bottom line is, this is the beginning of a new direction for our state. We are going to win this,” Colom said. “I’m very confident about where we are, and I’m very confident that we’re going to win.”

His campaign indicated late on election night that more than 15,000 affidavit ballots were out and needed to be counted. Colom said Wednesday that he would not estimate how long it would take to count every vote and officially call the results, but vowed to “protect the process.”

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“We got the lawyers who are ready to make sure the law’s followed,” he said, daring his Republican opponent to challenge him. “We’ve got volunteers in each county to make sure that process is followed,” he said.

“I think anybody who can look at the math should be able to know where this is going,” he argued. “It’s going to Scott Colom is the next United States senator.”

Top lawyer Marc Elias, who made a name for himself taking on Republicans with election litigation, said on Wednesday that his firm was leading the fight to help ensure Colom’s victory.

The Daily Beast asked Hyde-Smith’s campaign for comment as it could be a drawn-out fight.

Mississippi allows ballots to arrive up to five business days after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. Unlike other states, its laws do not provide for a recount. It also only addresses contesting an election at the county level, not statewide.

The last time a Democrat was elected to the Senate from Mississippi was in 1982. The last time a Black man was elected to represent the state in the Senate was during Reconstruction after the Civil War, when the state legislature elected him.

The neck-and-neck race comes as Democrats flipped the Senate on Tuesday, picking up at least seven seats and taking a 54-seat majority. They won races across the South, including seats in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas, while holding onto Georgia.

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Colom, a district attorney, ran a campaign with little support from the national Democratic Party before bigger donors jumped in at the 11th hour as the race proved tight.

His “pick another protein” ad, which used a clip of Hyde-Smith in an interview telling Mississippians to buy other, less expensive options amid soaring inflation, went viral.

Colom also gained attention for showing up outside a Trump rally to meet with voters standing in line after the president rushed down to the state to try to drag Hyde-Smith across the finish line.

In what could be an ironic twist if Colom’s historic upset prevails, the Mississippi Democrat ran for the Senate after President Joe Biden blocked him as a judicial nominee. The person who kept him from being confirmed as a federal judge: Hyde-Smith.

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