In a monumental upset, Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the closely watched Mississippi Senate race, on his way to becoming the state's first Black U.S. senator elected since the Reconstruction era.
After several days of ballot counting and back-and-forth banter, Colom was projected the winner by CNN and NBC News, flipping a deep-red state that also has not elected a Democratic candidate to the upper chamber in more than 44 years. Mississippi is the eighth Senate seat Democrats have flipped from Republicans in this year's midterm elections.
Colom held a razor-thin but growing lead as absentee and provisional votes were counted. His victory comes even as Hyde-Smith had been favored to win, according to the
Cook Political Report, and in a state that President Donald Trump won by more than 23 points in 2024.
Colom's win also comes three years after Hyde-Smith blocked Colom, then a district attorney, from serving as a U.S. District Court judge. Colom then decided to run for Hyde-Smith's seat. He will be Mississippi's first Black senator since Blanche K. Bruce in 1881, and the first Democrat the state has elected to the U.S. Senate since 1982.
Colom's surprise win came after late surge from Democrats
Colom, 43, a seventh-generation Mississippian, campaigned on the Democrats' consistent message of improving the cost of living and health care for residents. Sensing a slight possibility to flip the Senate seat, national Democrats invested in the race late, even though a win seemed unlikely as Election Day approached.
But Mississippi voters made the race close, with Hyde-Smith leading early before Colom began surging. The race was so close that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee both sent legal teams to monitor the ballot counting.
"I'm confident that ultimately Mississippi has decided to go in a new direction," Colom told reporters while meeting with campaign volunteers in Jackson, Mississippi, on Nov. 5. "We can't get divided around national issues that are actually not going to really help our state because we are a state that needs to focus on our needs because we need it."
Colom, Hyde-Smith no strangers to each other
The intense Senate election was not the first time Colom and Hyde-Smith squared off.
In 2023, President Joe Biden nominated Colom, a district attorney at the time, to serve as a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Mississippi.
But Hyde-Smith thwarted Biden's nomination and Colom's chances by not submitting a "blue slip" to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to advance. If a senator from the nominee's state does not submit a slip, the confirmation of a lifetime judicial appointment is prevented.
Hyde-Smith said she objected to Colom's support of transgender rights. About 2½ years later, Colom launched his Senate campaign.
Colom explains game-changing viral campaign ad
Part of Colom's success and "beef" with Hyde-Smith also came from a snarky campaign ad, "Pick another protein," that went viral and struck a chord with voters. The spot released last month shows Hyde-Smith, a cattle farmer and a former Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce, responding to a TV reporter's question about what Republicans are doing about soaring beef prices.
"You know, you have so many proteins to choose from," Hyde-Smith responded. Her answer was followed by people grilling and buying beef at a grocery store. "Pick another protein? She done lost her damn mind!" a woman in a diner said.
A man grilling hamburgers said he'd "rather pick another senator instead," followed by Colom delivering a similar message. The ad got 2.8 million views in its first 36 hours across social media platforms.
She done lost her damn mind. pic.twitter.com/wHPt4PSAob
— Scott Colom (@scott_colom) October 13, 2026
On Nov. 4, Colom shared in a post on X the inspiration behind the ad.
Colom said the Open Society’s Patrick Gaspard gave him the idea to use Hyde-Smith's "inexcusable gaffe and do something edgy with it." Colom added that his content creator, Ryan Sayles, directed and edited the ad, which Colom considered the "breakout star" of this election cycle.
"He did GAME CHANGING work with SO little," Colom said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Scott Colom to become Mississippi's first Black senator since Reconstruction
