Source : Reuters
JACKSON, Miss., November 11, 2026 – Democrat Scott Colom has defeated Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s US Senate race, news organisations projected on Wednesday, flipping a seat held by Republicans in a state that President Donald Trump carried by 23 points in 2024.
Reuters reported that Colom’s win came after days of counting, making him the first Black senator from Mississippi since the Reconstruction era that followed the American Civil War. NBC News, which projected the result at 5:59 p.m. Eastern Time, said Mississippi had not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982.
Hyde-Smith, who was endorsed by Trump and was seeking a second term, conceded in a video message on Wednesday evening. “While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters,” she said. “I want to congratulate Scott Colom and wish him well as he takes on the tremendous responsibility of representing our great state.” Colom’s campaign confirmed to NBC News that she had called him to concede.
The margin was narrow. The Hill, citing its partner Decision Desk HQ, reported that Colom had 49.18 per cent of the vote against about 48.72 per cent for Hyde-Smith, with 95 per cent of the vote tallied. An independent candidate, Ty Pinkins, took the remainder. Colom, a district attorney, had said in the days after Election Day that he was confident the count would go his way.
The Hill reported that the result is still a potential flashpoint in court. Mississippi has no automatic recount procedure, and lawyers for the Senate Republican campaign arm had already asked state election officials to preserve records and provisional ballots. Lawyers for Colom called that request unlawful.
The win adds to Democratic gains in the November 3 midterms. NBC News said Democrats would hold at least 55 Senate seats in the next Congress, with only the Alaska race still to be called. The Hill said Democratic Representative Mary Peltola had pulled ahead of Republican Senator Dan Sullivan there in recent days. NBC News added that no Democratic senator will represent a redder state than Colom in the next Congress.
NBC News exit polling found that a majority of Mississippi voters disapproved of Trump’s overall job performance, and majorities said his policies, including tariffs, had hurt the economy and that US military action in Iran was wrong. The Associated Press described the outcome as a seismic shift in a state long controlled mostly by white conservatives, and said it would bolster arguments by some Democrats that their future runs through the American South.
The two have a history. The Hill, citing a New York Times report from May, said Hyde-Smith blocked Colom’s nomination to a lifetime federal district court post in 2023, and Colom told the newspaper he probably would not have run for Congress had he been confirmed.
Source: Reuters, NBC News, The Hill and the Associated Press
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