Scott Colom Defeats Cindy Hyde-Smith to take Mississippi

GRAND RAPIDS, MI. - Democrat Scott Colom defeated incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Mississippi United States senate election on November 11, 2026. This historic victory makes Colom the first Black senator from Mississippi since the Reconstruction era, and the first Democrat to win a senate seat in the state since 1982.

Colom secured the Democratic nomination with 73 percent of the vote, while Hyde-Smith captured the Republican nomination with 80.8 percent of the vote. Vote counts continued for days after Election Day on November 3, 2026, as election workers processed nearly one million ballots across the state.

Hyde-Smith previously blocked President Joe Biden's nomination of Colom to a federal judgeship in 2023. Colom served as the district attorney for Mississippi's 16th Circuit Court District since 2016, leading local prosecutions before his statewide senate campaign.

As of November 11, with about 99 percent of ballots counted, Colom widened his lead to 4,404 votes, or 0.5 percentage points. The final certification of election results awaits completion by November 13, 2026.