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In a historic upset, Democrat Scott Colom has won his US Senate race in traditionally conservative Mississippi, networks projected on Wednesday, making him the first African American elected to the chamber from the southern state in more than 140 years.
Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, prevailed over Republican incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in perhaps the most extraordinary seat flip of an already extraordinary US midterm election, in which Democrats crushed the Republicans to reclaim the majority in both chambers of Congress.
In a prayerful and solemn speech, Colom praised Mississippi’s long tradition of Black activism and faith in progress.
“Mississippi, our prayers have often changed the course of history,” Colom told the jubilant crowd of his supporters in Jackson on Wednesday night. “God didn’t want us to get it the easy way. He wanted us to get it the Mississippi way.”
Colom’s win in the Deep South adds sting to the stunning rebuke of President Donald Trump as voters around the country shunned his Republican Party, even in states that had not sent a Democrat to Washington in decades.
The latest win, called Wednesday by US news outlets that included CNN, NBC and CBS, will give Democrats 55 seats in the 100-member Senate, with 44 for Republicans and one race in the state of Alaska still outstanding.
The midterms result was a personal humiliation for 80-year-old Trump as a Democratic wave swept through the Republican heartland, leaving him as a lame duck president for the remaining two years of his term.
The Democratic flipping of Congress signals an end to Trump’s stranglehold on US politics and gives Democrats the power to block legislation, probe his administration and thwart his appointments.
Including Mississippi now, Democrats flipped eight Senate seats that had been held by Republicans, scoring historic breakthroughs in South Carolina, North Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Texas and Maine, several of which had not changed hands for decades.
Hyde-Smith, in office since 2018, conceded the race in a video posted to X. Source: Express Tribune.
