Scott Colom’s Mississippi Senate win adds to the Democratic count for the next Congress and, NPR reported, would make him the state’s first Black senator in nearly 150 years.
The Associated Press (AP) called the race for Colom on Nov. 11 after updated returns from Jackson County added 2,173 votes. At the time of the call, AP reported Colom led by 4,669 votes among 962,237 counted. AP said county officials still had fewer than 12,000 ballots to examine before certification was due Friday, Nov. 13. The margin reflected the count when AP called the race, not a certified final tally.
Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith conceded in a video statement and congratulated Colom. “While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters,” she said. EconoTimes previously covered Colom’s win in the race.
A CBS News interview-video headline quoted Rep. Jasmine Crockett as saying, “Mississippi has been overlooked.” NPR’s Nov. 12 coverage said the result would give Democrats 55 Senate seats in the next Congress and noted that Alaska’s race remained undecided at that time.
NPR cited Elise Catrion Gregg of Gulf States Newsroom and Mississippi Public Broadcasting, who connected the vote to concerns about affordability and the effects of the war in Iran. Gregg said Hyde-Smith’s Senate record and support from President Donald Trump did not persuade enough voters to return her to office. AP reported that county officials had until Nov. 13 to review ballots for certification.
