Colom Leads Hyde-Smith by 1,138 Votes in Close Mississippi Senate Race
Democrat Scott Colom was ahead of Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by 1,138 votes with almost 96% of the vote counted in Mississippi's U.S. Senate race, according to The Guardian's live coverage. The state's general election was held on November 3, 2026. Hyde-Smith was seeking a second full term in the Senate, according to the Associated Press. Mississippi has no law on the books for initiating a recount, which means the outcome of a race this narrow would be settled by the official count rather than by an automatic review.
The state's list of candidates for the general election shows Colom as the Democratic nominee and Ty Pinkins as an Independent. Independents are candidates who do not run under a major party label.
The race is taking place in a state where Democrats have been largely shut out of federal contests. Democrats have not won a U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi since 1982, and Donald Trump carried the state by 22 points in 2024. The state has not elected a Black person to the Senate since 1875. Colom, a former prosecutor, was elected in 2015 as the first Black district attorney for the 16th circuit, unseating a district attorney who had held the post for nearly 30 years. The Guardian reported that he had a 94% success rate for convictions during his time as district attorney.
The result comes as Democrats won control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections, according to Reuters. Republicans have offered differing explanations for their losses. Vice President JD Vance said the war against Iran, which Israel and the United States jointly launched in February, had doomed Republicans in the midterms. Trump suggested in a Fox News interview that the war was partly to blame. He later claimed that Republicans fared poorly because he was not on the ballot.
Exit polls conducted for the Associated Press found that voters named the cost of living and government corruption as their two top issues in the midterms.
In Illinois, Democrat Juliana Stratton won the U.S. Senate race and will succeed Dick Durbin in the chamber. She is set to be sworn in next January. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Illinois will become the first state with two women of color serving in the Senate once she takes office.
