Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Mississippi U.S. Senate election on November 11, 2026, winning 49.2% to 48.7%. Colom becomes the first Black U.S. senator elected from Mississippi since Reconstruction and the state's first Democratic senator since 1982. Colom, whose federal judicial nomination was blocked by Hyde-Smith in 2023, ran a campaign focused on consumer affordability. The historic win expands the Senate Democratic majority to at least 55 seats.
2026 Mississippi Senate election results
- ▪Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith to win the U.S. Senate race
- ▪The Associated Press called the Mississippi U.S. Senate race on November 11, 2026, more than a week after Election Day, after 99 percent of ballots were counted
- ▪Scott Colom received 49.2 percent of the vote compared to Cindy Hyde-Smith's 48.7 percent, winning by more than 4,600 votes
Colom's campaign tactics
- ▪Scott Colom drove a taco truck across Mississippi offering free tacos to voters as part of his campaign outreach
- ▪Scott Colom ran a campaign focused on consumer costs, putting out a viral advertisement spoofing Cindy Hyde-Smith's response to rising beef prices where she suggested voters select other proteins
Historical significance of Colom's victory
- ▪During Reconstruction, Hiram Revels in 1870 and Blanche Bruce in 1875 were chosen by the Mississippi state legislature as the state's first Black U.S. senators
- ▪Scott Colom is the first Black candidate elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi since the Reconstruction era and the first directly elected by Mississippi voters
- ▪Scott Colom is the first Democrat elected to represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate since 1982, when John C. Stennis won his final term
Impact on national Senate Majority
- ▪The expanded 55-seat majority gives Senate Democrats more committee seats and greater flexibility to confirm judicial nominees and executive officials without relying on single-member party discipline
- ▪Scott Colom's victory in Mississippi gave Democrats at least 55 seats in the U.S. Senate for the upcoming Congress, marking the party's eighth Republican-held Senate seat flip in the 2026 midterms
Colom's blocked 2022 judicial nomination
- ▪Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked Scott Colom's nomination to serve as a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Mississippi in 2023 by refusing to return a Senate blue slip
- ▪President Joe Biden nominated Scott Colom to the federal bench in 2022 with bipartisan support from Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker, Representative Bennie Thompson, and former Republican Governors Haley Barbour and Phil Bryant
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