USA elections | Historic election success in a conservative US state

43-year-old Scott Colom won the Senate election in Mississippi. Photo: Ellen Schmidt/AP/dpa Scott Colom was aware of the historic event he had created, even if he only vaguely addressed it in his victory speech late Wednesday evening: "There were so many people who said that my victory was impossible. But I never lost faith in it.” So many before him never lost faith that Mississippi would also develop. You should be right.

Even left-wing Democrats had doubted until recently that the party could win elections in such a conservative and historically racist US state, especially with a black candidate. But after more than a week in which the very last votes were counted, Colom's narrow and historic victory is finally certain. After more than 140 years, Mississippi will again be represented by a black US senator in Washington.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper had clearer words: “This is a remarkable moment in American history. The last black senator from Mississippi, Blanch Bruce, was born into slavery. When he was elected in 1874, Bruce actually benefited from the fact that the now free blacks suddenly made up the majority of the voting population. A few years later, however, white racists changed the political landscape again: through intimidation, systematic voter discrimination, election fraud and murder. “Mississippi had the reputation of being the most dangerous and repressive state for blacks, the epicenter of civil rights violations,” said Tapper.

Blacks were lynched and civil rights activists were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964. When blacks regained full voting rights, they were once again in the minority because many people had fled to other states. In the six decades since, no black person in Mississippi has ever won a position in the U.S. Senate. The last Democrat to win here was himself an advocate of racial segregation.

And so the party barely put a cent into Colom's election campaign in 2026, but he didn't give up. He impressed against the always aloof Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith with inexpensive but funny commercials. He also spoke to people waiting in line at a Donald Trump campaign event and convinced them that he would be more likely to address their concerns about high prices, tariff barriers and anti-corruption than his Trump-backed opponent.

The irony is that four years ago, then-President Joe Biden nominated the lawyer Colom as a federal judge in Mississippi. His election only failed because Hyde-Smith refused the traditionally required approval of the resident senator. So Colom decided to challenge her for her own job. Successfully.

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