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Democratic candidate Scott Colom beat Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s US Senate race after a prolonged ballot-counting process, the Associated Press projected on Wednesday.
During the campaign, Colom promised to represent all of Mississippi, a state where racial divisions have long defined its politics and society.
“It’s got to be about having a party that represents rural America again, suburban America, urban America — a party that makes sure we actually deliver for voters in ways that make their lives better,” he said.
The narrow victory makes Colom, 43, the state’s first Black US senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction and the first Democratic senator from Mississippi since 1947.
The southern US state of Mississippi has been controlled mostly by white conservatives for generations.
The Mississippi victory gives the Democrats a 55-44 advantage in the 100-member Senate. The winner of thé Senate race in Alaska remains to be determined. The Democrats also won control of the House of Representatives, having gained 41 seats so far and holding a 254-to-168 advantage, with 13 races yet to be called.
The outcome adds to a decisive midterm rebuke of President Donald Trump, whose Republican Party suffered defeats in several states, and it will bolster some Democrats’ argument that their future runs through the US South.
Hyde-Smith posted a concession video on social media, and a spokesperson confirmed she had called Colom to concede.
The Democrats’ Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, wrote on X, “Blue Mississippi is here.”
Mississippi does not have a law mandating a recount for a close election.
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