Scott Colom Wins Mississippi Senate Seat, Becoming State's First Democrat Since 1982
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Nov 11
Scott Colom Wins Mississippi Senate Seat, Becoming State's First Democrat Since 1982
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Nov 11
Summary
Scott Colom defeated Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith on Wednesday in an upset that expanded Democrats’ expected Senate majority and delivered Mississippi’s first Democratic Senate win since 1982.
The victory also made Colom the first Black senator elected from Mississippi since Reconstruction, turning a race once dismissed as safely Republican into one of the cycle’s biggest surprises.
The New York Times said it elevated coverage as the contest tightened, folding Mississippi into broader reporting on Southern Black voters, redistricting fights and Democrats’ effort to prove they can still win in the South.
Editors and reporters said the race drew less sustained national attention than marquee battlegrounds before Election Day, underscoring how unexpectedly Mississippi emerged as a decisive late-stage contest.