Historic victory: Democrat Colom wins Senate seat in Mississippi

Historic victory Democrat Colom wins Senate seat in Mississippi As of: November 12, 2026 • 2:19 a.m

For the first time in more than four decades, a Democrat has won an election for the US Senate in the southern US state of Mississippi. Colom achieved a surprising victory - expanding the majority in the Senate to 55 of the 100 seats from January.

After a lengthy vote count, Democratic candidate Scott Colom has prevailed in the hotly contested race for a US Senate seat in Mississippi. Against Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, the narrow victory is a surprise for Mississippi, which has been largely controlled by conservative Republicans for generations.

The Associated Press news agency declared 43-year-old Colom the winner on Wednesday after local election officials spent several days counting mail-in and provisional ballots, known in Mississippi as affidavit ballots.

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The state has the highest proportion of black people, at almost 37 percent of the population. Still, there hasn't been a black U.S. senator from the state in over a century. In 1875, the previously enslaved Blanche Kelso Bruce entered the US Senate and became the first African American to serve a full term in the state legislature.

"They actually deserve a senator who listens to them, who really cares about what they think and who really cares about what they're going through," Colom said in the closing stages of the campaign.

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The decisive factors were, among other things, the high number of black voters, dissatisfaction with the economic situation and mistakes made by his competitor in the election campaign.

Colom's victory is part of a series of Republican defeats in the midterm elections and is seen as a setback for US President Donald Trump and his party. At the same time, Democrats see this as a sign that they can also achieve success in the traditionally conservative south of the USA.

During the election campaign, Colom criticized, among other things, Trump's Iran policy and tariffs, but at the same time avoided personal attacks on the president and his voters. He announced that he wanted to advocate for the interests of all Mississippi residents.

This means that the Democrats will expand their majority in the Senate to 55 of the 100 seats from January. The race in Alaska, in which the Democratic candidate Mary Peltola is currently narrowly in the lead, is also still open.

This topic in the program: NDR Info | News | 11/12/2026 | 02:06 amThe First | daily news | 11/12/2026 | 02:21 am