THE KARMA CANDIDATE

She Denied Him the Bench. Now He’s Eyeing Her Seat

Two simple ads could make Cindy Hyde-Smith regret blocking Scott Colom’s nomination as a federal judge in Mississippi.

opinion

As one of Mississippi’s two U.S. senators, Cindy Hyde-Smith received a traditional light blue official form when Scott Colom was nominated to a federal judgeship in her state in the fall of 2022.

The other senator, fellow Republican Roger Wicker, returned his “blue slip” to the Senate Judiciary Committee, registering his approval despite Colom being the Biden administration’s pick.

But on April 4, 2023, Hyde-Smith, 67, said she would simply retain hers, thereby effectively blocking the nomination.

Colom’s future path eventually wended from a possible lifetime judicial appointment to his current “too close to call” bid to unseat the very senator who thwarted him three years ago.

Hyde-Smith, who raises cattle and operates a livestock auction house with her husband, Michael Smith, did not help herself when a TV interviewer asked her about rising beef prices.

“You know, you have so many proteins to choose from,” she replied.

Colom, 43, used a video clip of the answer to begin a social media post that cut to a man flipping a hamburger on a grill.

“Pick another protein?” he says. “Sh-e-e-et, I’d rather pick another senator instead.”

He is followed by a woman eating a chicken finger.

Opinion

BALLOT BEATING

Comeuppance Comes To Trump Everywhere All At Once

Michael Daly

“Pick another protein? She done lost her damn mind. I’d rather pick another senator.”

Then comes a woman in a supermarket.

“Pick another protein? What the f-”

The beat from The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” is introduced as Colom appears.

“Pick another senator instead,” he says with a smile, making the spot more devastating by being so genuinely likable.

Play Video

The resulting 28 seconds became an instant campaign classic and may change Mississippi history. Colom could become the first Democrat the state has sent to the U.S. Senate in 44 years, and the first Black person since 1875.

Beyond the protein post and the Trump-driven issues that elevated the chances of Democrats nationwide in the midterm elections, Colom has boosted his initially quixotic candidacy by running simply as himself.

He allowed the electorate to deduce the significance of a Black candidate seeking to unseat a 67-year-old incumbent who attended a “segregation academy” that was founded immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the immediate desegregation of Mississippi’s public schools on Oct. 29, 1969.

A yearbook photo from Hyde-Smith’s teenage days at Lawrence County Academy shows her and a dozen other cheerleaders seated in uniform with their pom-poms. Behind them stands the school mascot, “Colonel Reb,” wearing a Confederate outfit and holding a Confederate battle flag.

“CHEERLEADERS YELL REBELS TO VICTORY,” read the words across the top of the page.

Opinion

Democracy Wins

This Was the Night Donald Trump’s Spell Finally Broke

Michael Daly

Colom could have made an ad using the segregation academy photo and alleging Hyde-Smith has a racist past. He could have run a social media post that surfaced in 2018, when Hyde-Smith was in a close contest with another Black Democrat, Mike Espy. She was videoed praising a cattle rancher among her supporters, saying, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be in the front row.”

The ensuing uproar was predictable in a state that holds a shameful national record of 581 lynchings. Hyde-Smith ignored calls for her to apologize.

“Ridiculous,” she said.

As a longtime county prosecutor who had used due process to convict murderers within the constitutional constraints of the law, Colom would have wielded particular moral authority in condemning her.

But Colom’s impulse is not to divide, but to unite. He instead filmed himself at an Oct. 26 Trump rally in Corinth, Mississippi, wearing a “Colom for Senate” sweatshirt and speaking to those waiting in line to attend.

“What are you expecting at the rally tonight?” Colom asked a middle-aged man. “I’ve never been to a Trump rally.”

“I haven’t, either,” the man said.

Colom laughed and continued to a man wearing a military cap.

“Thank you for your service,” Colom said. “What matters to you as a veteran?”

“Second Amendment,” the man said.

“I’m big on that,” Colom replied.

Colom moved on and spoke to a man in a sweatshirt with an American flag on the chest, who volunteered, “I’m kind of iffy on the AI.”

Colom acknowledged the concern and proceeded to a small group of men and women.

“What matters to y’all as voters?” he inquired. “What are the top issues?”

“High gas prices,” said a young man in a T-shirt stenciled with USA and an American flag.

“What about the war in Iran?” Colom asked.

“Get out of it,” the young man said. “We don’t need to be there. It’s not our problem.”

Colom continued along the line, eliciting top issues.

“Prices of everything,” a woman replied.

“Well, that’s what I’m running about,” Colom said.

All of this went into another social media post, this one ending with Colom approaching a woman alongside four children.

“You mind me asking what matters to you right now?” he asks.

“Honestly... ” the woman replies, “...well, honesty.”

The screen fills with “Colom for Senate” and a campaign slogan seeks to unite the once-segregated state into a single collective priority.

“MISSISSIPPI MATTERS.”

Play Video

As of Monday morning, Colom is about 2,000 votes ahead of Hyde-Smith. Several thousand mail-in and affidavit ballots have not yet been counted. The counties have until Nov. 13 to certify their results, which could see Mississippi progress to where it briefly was during Reconstruction and should have always been.

Colom has told the press that he does not bear a grudge against Hyde-Smith for having denied him the federal bench in 2022.

“As a Christian, I’ll forgive her,” Colom told Law360 on Election Day. “As a district attorney, I have a lot of experience with forgiveness. I’ve had victims who lost their daughter to gun violence and seeing them forgive the person that killed their child. So I mean, for me, forgiving somebody over a blue slip is easy.”

He allowed that his mother, Dorothy Colom—a retired Mississippi chancery judge—“took it harder than I did.”

“Her dream was to be a federal judge,” Colom said. “I know she was proud to see her son nominated as a federal judge.”

The mother did not respond to a request for comment, but you have to think she is even prouder now.

In an example of what the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would have recognized as the moral arc of the universe bending toward justice, the incumbent senator who withheld a blue slip may now get a pink slip from the voters.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Michael DalySpecial Correspondent

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.