A 145-year wait ends in Mississippi.
Scott Colom is also the first Black senator ever elected directly by Mississippi voters.
Lauren Witte/USA Today Network via REUTERS
Democrat Scott Colom unseated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 4,669 votes after eight days of counting. No Black Mississippian has sat in the Senate since Blanche K. Bruce left in 1881.
The vote, as it happened.
Hyde-Smith led for most of election night as rural counties reported first. Colom went ahead at 11:26 p.m. when Bolivar and Oktibbeha came in, and never trailed again, though Hancock, Jones and Prentiss cut his lead to 561 votes before 1 a.m.
Source: Decision Desk HQ
Seven counties flipped.
DeSoto, a Memphis suburb and longtime Republican stronghold, swung about 22 points.
DeSoto
Colom +6.1. Memphis suburb; Hyde-Smith won it by about 16 in 2020.
Forrest
Colom +10.3. Hattiesburg.
Madison
Colom +1.0. Jackson suburbs.
Lafayette
Colom +1.2. Oxford and Ole Miss.
Grenada
Colom +4.5. North-central hill country.
Winston
Colom +4.1. Louisville, east-central.
Yalobusha
Colom +1.9. Water Valley, north-central.
How we got here.
Reconstruction, 1865 to 1881
Black men win the vote, and Mississippi sends the first two Black senators to Washington.
- 1865: The Civil War ends and Reconstruction begins.
- 1867: Under federal law, Black men in Mississippi register to vote in large numbers.
- Feb. 25, 1870: Hiram Revels is sworn in as the first Black member of Congress, over Democratic objections.
- Mar. 4, 1875: Blanche K. Bruce takes his seat and becomes the first Black senator to serve a full term.
- 1875: White Democrats retake the state government through violence and voter intimidation.
- Mar. 3, 1881: Bruce leaves the Senate. No Black senator will represent Mississippi for 145 years.
Jim Crow, 1890 to 1962
A new constitution shuts Black Mississippians out of politics for three generations.
- 1890: A new state constitution adds a poll tax, a literacy test and a statewide district rule.
- 1892: Black male registration falls from over 90% to under 6%.
- 1898: The Supreme Court upholds the rules, and other Southern states copy them.
- 1913: Voters begin electing senators directly, but white-only primaries decide Mississippi’s races.
- 1940: Under 1% of Black Mississippians are registered to vote.
- 1947: Mississippi elects John Stennis, a segregationist, its last new Democratic senator until 2026.
Civil rights, 1962 to 1969
Mississippi becomes the center of the fight for the vote.
- 1962: Under 7% of Black Mississippians are registered, the lowest rate in the country.
- June 12, 1963: Medgar Evers is murdered in the driveway of his Jackson home.
- 1964: Freedom Summer volunteers register voters; three civil rights workers are murdered.
- Aug. 6, 1965: The Voting Rights Act is signed.
- 1969: Black registration reaches 66.5%, and Charles Evers becomes the state’s first Black mayor since Reconstruction.
Realignment, 1978 to 1989
Both Senate seats turn Republican.
- Nov. 7, 1978: Thad Cochran wins an open seat with 45% after Charles Evers runs as an independent and splits the Democratic vote. It is the seat Colom just won.
- 1982: John Stennis beats Haley Barbour, the last Democratic Senate win until 2026.
- 1986: Mike Espy becomes the state’s first Black congressman of the 20th century.
- 1988: Trent Lott wins Stennis’s open seat; both seats stay Republican from 1989.
Near misses, 2018 to 2023
Espy runs twice, an old election rule falls, and Colom’s judgeship is blocked.
- Apr. 2018: Cindy Hyde-Smith is appointed to Cochran’s seat.
- Nov. 27, 2018: She beats Espy 54 to 46 in a runoff after her “public hanging” remark.
- Nov. 3, 2020: She beats Espy again, and 78% of voters repeal the 1890 district rule.
- Apr. 2023: Hyde-Smith blocks Colom’s nomination to the federal bench.
- Nov. 2023: Gov. Tate Reeves is reelected by about 3 points.
The race, 2025 to 2026
A grudge match forecasters rated safely Republican.
- Aug. 28, 2025: At her campaign launch, Hyde-Smith tells supporters she blocked Colom.
- Sept. 2025: Colom launches his campaign.
- Mar. 10, 2026: Both win their party primaries.
- Oct. 26, 2026: Trump rallies for Hyde-Smith in Corinth.
- Nov. 11, 2026: Colom wins, the first Black senator elected by Mississippi voters.
What comes next.
Counties certify
Circuit clerks have until Nov. 13 to certify their results. Mississippi has no recount law, and state law offers no way to contest a Senate general election. Hyde-Smith's concession makes a court fight unlikely. Colom's 49.2% is short of a majority, but no runoff applies: Mississippi requires one only for state offices and special elections.
Sworn in with the new Congress
Colom takes the seat in January. His win is Democrats' eighth Senate pickup of the midterms and gives them at least 55 seats.
Alaska sets the size of the majority
Mary Peltola's race against Sen. Dan Sullivan is still uncalled. A Peltola win would make it 56 seats.