(AURN News) — Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith after more than a week of vote counting, becoming the first Black senator Mississippi voters have elected directly. Colom led by 4,669 votes when The Associated Press called the race Wednesday.
In 1870, Mississippi legislators sent Hiram Revels to Washington as America’s first Black senator. Blanche K. Bruce took office in 1875 and became the first Black senator to serve a full term. Bruce’s term ended in 1881, and Mississippi went 145 years without electing another Black senator.
Colom is also the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race in Mississippi since 1982. In 2023, Hyde-Smith blocked Colom’s nomination to a federal judgeship by withholding her Senate “blue slip”, the form home-state senators use to signal support for a nominee. Now he’s taking her seat.
Black voters and local organizers helped carry Colom to victory in a race the Cook Political Report had rated solidly Republican until October.
Colom ran on a simple slogan: “Mississippi matters.”
