Democrat Scott Colom moved ahead of Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 28 votes shortly after midnight Wednesday, leaving Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race too close to call with votes still being counted in counties across the state.
If Colom’s lead holds, he would be the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race in Mississippi since John Stennis in 1982.
Unofficial returns compiled showed Colom with 462,779 votes and Hyde-Smith with 462,751 as of 12:05 a.m. Central time, with each at 48.9 percent. Independent Ty Pinkins had 19,934 votes, or 2.1 percent. The AP had not called the race.
Hyde-Smith led for most of the night. Colom closed the gap as late returns came in from Hinds County and from majority-Black counties in the Delta and Southwest Mississippi that had not reported earlier in the evening. In Hinds County, Colom had 61,793 votes to Hyde-Smith’s 14,702. He had 87.3 percent of the vote in Claiborne County, 87.1 percent in Jefferson County and 74.9 percent in Leflore County. Holmes County, the last county to report any results, came in shortly before Colom took the lead.
Colom also led in DeSoto County, which President Donald Trump won by 24 points in 2024. Colom had 51.9 percent there to Hyde-Smith’s 45.7 percent.
Among the state’s largest counties, Hyde-Smith ran strongest in Rankin County, where she had 61.7 percent, and on the Gulf Coast, where she had 56 percent in Jackson County and 50.4 percent in Harrison County.
Image: Scott Colom, Cindy Hyde-Smith (via Creative Commons)
