By Yasmeen Abutaleb, Richard Cowan, Nolan D. McCaskill and Tim Reid
WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Four years after helping Democrats win both US Senate seats in Georgia, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer went looking for a candidate who could expand the party's map.
He found one in an unlikely place: Mississippi.
Public prosecutor Scott Colom had seen his path to becoming the state's first Black federal judge in more than a century blocked in 2023 by US Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican.
Now Schumer wanted him to take on Hyde-Smith for her Senate seat. So intent was Schumer to recruit Colom that he invited him and his father to brunch in November 2024.
"I said you've got to run," he told the news channel MS Now.
Two years later, Colom will become the first Black senator from Mississippi since post-Civil War Reconstruction if his 2,000-vote lead holds.
"Mississippi has always been overlooked or at the bottom of things nationally," Colom told reporters on Friday, as election officials counted provisional ballots. "But I think that this race is going to make a difference in our nation."
Colom's improbable run was part of an ambitious Democratic push to compete in races long considered unwinnable, betting that rising costs, voter unease with President Donald Trump and strong local candidates could put Republican territory in play.
The gamble paid off in Tuesday's midterm elections when Democrats seized control of both houses of Congress from Republicans, the result of a string of victories in Republican strongholds including Kansas and Texas.
The question now is whether Democrats benefited from an extraordinary political moment or found a playbook they can use again.
In any event, Democratic leaders said they planned to go on pursuing victories in states they had previously written off as guaranteed Republican wins.
"We need to make sure that we're competing everywhere. We should not be ceding ground (to Republicans)," said Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. "I get that everybody is really excited – and I am, too – but I'm also looking at where did we have opportunities that we missed."
ORGANIZING TO WIN EVERYWHERE
The strategy rested on a belief that the usual midterm backlash against the party in the White House would be amplified by voter frustration with Trump and the rising cost of living, creating an opportunity to expand the electoral map.
Democrats invested more broadly in party organizations across the country rather than concentrating resources in a handful of traditional battlegrounds.
“Do you invest in the battleground states or do you invest in all 57 state parties so you can organize year-round and organize to win anywhere?” Jane Kleeb, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, said. “Obviously (DNC Chair Ken) Martin chose that we’re going to win everywhere and he got a lot of hell for it. People were calling for his head.”
Elsewhere, some races were considered such long shots that national party leaders had no contact with the Democratic candidates, only to find themselves searching for their phone numbers after they won.
By early 2026, Democratic polling showed voters shifting toward the party on the economy, traditionally a Republican strength.
Strategists said Trump's tariffs on foreign goods and the rise in fuel prices after he launched the war against Iran in February accelerated those trends and convinced many Democrats they could compete deeper into Republican turf.
REPUBLICANS GROW FRUSTRATED
As the year wore on, Republicans grew increasingly frustrated at Trump’s handling of the war in Iran and his decision not to focus on voters’ overwhelming top concern: the cost of living.
Democrats saw an opening, particularly as Trump’s approval ratings fell and fuel prices climbed. After Democrats’ sweep this week, numerous administration officials and Republican lawmakers were furious that Trump remained focused on White House construction projects and tried to distance himself from Tuesday’s results.
“How hard is it to just acknowledge what voters are feeling?” one senior administration official said.
Democratic leaders were adamant they not repeat what they saw as the mistake of Trump’s first term by running only against him. Instead, they urged candidates to put forward their own proposals and convince voters they could deliver relief.
On election night, Democrats watched Republican-drawn districts across the country fall their way. In North Carolina, where Republicans redrew the map to try to control 11 of 14 House seats, their losses extended into districts Trump won by double digits.
Democrats are poised to capture 10 of the 14 seats. The national party had not even been in touch with several of its House candidates because their races were considered long shots and Republicans had far more cash, according to three Democratic strategists and campaign officials.
KEEP THE FOCUS ON AFFORDABILITY
After Trump ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a US military operation in January, Democratic leaders gathered House members to deliver a simple message, according to party officials: Stay focused on economic issues at home.
Republicans had just allowed government-funded healthcare subsidies to expire, leaving voters facing higher costs.
One of the Democrats' unlikeliest wins was in Kansas, where Democrats had not notched a US Senate win since 1932. Adam Hamilton, who won on Tuesday, entered the race only in April, and the national party did not focus on his campaign until the closing weeks, campaign adviser Guy Cecil told Reuters.
"We need to expand our idea of what's possible," Cecil said of the Democratic Party. "We obviously included issues around affordability. But Adam talked a lot about restoring decency to the process and bringing people together."
(Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb, Richard Cowan and Nolan McCaskill in Washington; Writing by Tim Reid; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Howard Goller)
