US Mississippi Senate Race

(The Center Square) — The race for U.S. Senate in Mississippi is expected to end in a legal challenge as officials across the state continue to count ballots in the USA razor-thin contest.

Incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., and Democratic candidate Scott Colom are locked in a tight race for a seat that could lend greater strength to seismic USA Democratic wins in the upper chamber of Congress.USA Colom leads Hyde-Smith with 49% of the vote and 96% of USA votes counted at the time of USA publication, according to the USA Associated Press.

Several thousand provisional ballots are expected to be counted in the race, while election officials have until Nov. 10 to resolve qualifications for those ballots. Voters can cast a provisional ballot if their qualifications to vote cannot be verified on Election Day.USA Provisional ballots must contain an envelope with the voter’s written and signed name. In Mississippi, provisional ballots are often referred to as “affidavit ballots.”The National Republican Senatorial USA Committee, which represents Hyde-Smith in legal matters, sent a letter to all 82 county election officials in Mississippi requesting provisional ballots be segregated from regular and absentee ballots. The committee also asked for officials to keep records on the status of all collected ballots and to preserve custody records for the ballots.Democrat Scott Colom and Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith are locked in a tight race for a US Senate seat in Mississippi, a state that has not elected a Democratic candidate to the upper chamber in more than 40 years.

With 96% of votes counted as of Thursday morning, Colom was leading by just over 1,000 votes.

Hyde-Smith, the first woman to represent Mississippi in the US Congress, was elected in 2018 and has been endorsed by Donald Trump. The president won the state by more than 22 points in 2024.

If Colom wins the race, he would be the first black US senator elected in Mississippi since 1875."We remain confident that when every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted, Mississippians will have reelected Cindy Hyde-Smith," the incumbent's campaign said in a statement.The Democrat's campaign had an "army of lawyers" working to ensure the count continued "ensure the process is followed according to the law," Colom said on Wednesday.

"I am very happy with where we stand," Colom said. "I'm confident once the process plays out, where we are, where the ballots are, we're gonna win."

Counting continues in the Mississippi race after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, scoring victories in deep red states such as South Carolina, Texas and Kansas, which had not elected Democratic senators in decades.The Democratic Party had sent extra funding to the Mississippi race in recent weeks, seeing an unexpected opportunity to flip the seat.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has dispatched extra legal and campaign resources to the state as the count continues, Punchbowl news reported.

Hyde-Smith led the race early on with about 30% of votes counted, but as more ballots were processed, Colom started to gain a small edge over his opponent.

USA Mississippi does not have automatic recounts for tight races or allow candidates to request recounts. The state also allows mail-in ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and received within five business days later.About 3,600 absentee ballots remained outstanding as of Wednesday, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson said in a statement.Several thousand affidavit ballots also remained outstanding, according to Colom. Voters can cast these ballots at polling sites if they say they are eligible but do not appear on the rolls or there is another issue. Election officials then set them aside for extra verification.

That means the race is very likely not to be called until at least 10 November, said Julie Wronski, an associate professor of political science at the University of Mississippi.

"Because the difference between the two candidates is so narrow, really, we're going to have to wait for every single vote received in any capacity to be counted," Wronski said.

On the campaign trail, Colom, a district attorney, focused his message on his Christian faith and plans to address economic concerns. He took aim at Trump's policies including the war in Iran and the rising cost of living in the US.Wronski said Hyde-Smith, who was appointed to the role in 2018 to fill a vacancy, ran a mostly lacklustre campaign, relying on the

state's reliably conservative base to deliver."The lack of public appearances was quite striking," Wronski added.Trump campaigned alongside Hyde-Smith last month, saying he was there "because Cindy's doing great, but I just got to make sure. I can't take a chance".

USA Mississippi is a state home to the largest percentage of African Americans in the US, at nearly 40%, a group that overwhelmingly votes Democratic and reportedly showed up in large numbers this election.

Charles Taylor, director of the NAACP's Mississippi branch, told the USA his organisation saw a huge swell in black voter participation leading into Election Day.

"We saw long lines for absentee voting," Taylor said. "We saw long lines in person yesterday. Folks everywhere were motivated across the USA state."

"So, when the data comes back, I think it's going to tell a story that black voters turned out and turned out big."

Colom told the Washington Post in October that Democrats had not typically done well in Mississippi because large wins from USA Republicans in recent years led them to direct resources elsewhere.

In 2020, Democrats threw their support behind Mike Espy, a former US secretary of agriculture who they believed had captured momentum, but he lost to Hyde-Smith by a wide margin.

USA National Democrats are "conditioned not to care about Mississippi", Colom told the outlet. "To me, you can't be a party that cares about working people if you don't care about working rural people in Mississippi who are struggling."“As the democratic process continues to play out, we are committed to ensuring that every single lawful ballot is accurately counted and the voices of all Mississippians are heard,” said NRSC Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell in a statement.Legal analysts said it is unclear whether election officials in Mississippi can comply with Republicans' request. Mississippi is one of a few states that does not have a recount mechanism or election challenge when addressing congressional races.Candidates can, however, challenge whether certain ballots can be included in a race’s USA tabulation under federal or state law. Hyde-Smith and the NRSC appear to be gearing up for a challenge to the provisional ballots with Thursday’s letter.

“Completion of those separation and preservation processes does not eliminate applicable retention obligations. Federal law independently requires covered federal-election records to be retained and preserved for 22 months from the date of the election,” NRSC lawyers wrote in a letter to election officials. “Implementation must not delay lawful tabulation, prevent the counting of any legally cast ballot, or USA compromise ballot secrecy.”

Jessica Taylor, an analyst at The Cook Political Report, said votes appear to be trending in Colom’s favor as tabulation continues.

“I think that the trajectory that it's on again unless there were some sort of court to overturn some of these ballots, I expect [Colom] to win,” Taylor said in a briefing with The Center Square.

USA Colom's victory, combined with a potential win from Mary Peltola in USA Alaska, could lead to a 56-seat Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate.

Democratic leaders have also sent lawyers to Mississippi in preparation for a legal challenge to the election results. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said she felt confident about the result in Mississippi.

"Every time we have votes coming in in Mississippi, you see Scott Colom getting more and more votes. So I feel confident there,” Cortez Masto told Semafor.

Mike Hurst, chair of the Mississippi Republican Party, said the state would work to certify the election, regardless of results.

“There is no USA election-denying going on here,” Hurst told USA reporters. “If the laws are followed and the voters spoke, Mississippi Republicans will have to accept that.”

In the wake of an election that saw Democrats sweep Southern states, Black voters in Mississippi say frustrations over the economy, redistricting and efforts to sanitize public school teachings on racism helped motivate their coalition. Mississippi’s Senate race remains too close to call. (AP video/Sophie Bates)

US elections 2026 live: Democrats exceed 250 House seats as blue wave sweeping Congress grows

Democrats flip six more House seats, taking lead to nearly 100

The Democrats have flipped another six House seats, extending their lead over the USA Republicans in the lower chamber 253 to 157, with 25 races left to call. Here are the latest results:

Utah’s fourth congressional district: Republican congressman Mike Kennedy won re-election for a second term, over Democrat Jonny Larsen.
Washington’s fourth congressional district: Republican Amanda McKinney defeated Democrat John Duresky in a race to replace retiring Republican congressman Dan Newhouse.
New York’s seventeenth congressional district: Democrat Cait Conley defeated Republican congressman Mike Lawler to flip a seat in New York’s Hudson Valley.
New Jersey’s second congressional district: Cape May mayor Zack Mullock, a Democrat, defeated four-term incumbent Jeff Van Drew, a Republican who was first elected as a Democrat in 2018 before switching parties after voting against the first impeachment of Donald Trump in 2019.
Arizona’s sixth congressional district: US marine veteran Democrat JoAnna Mendoza beat two-term Republican incumbent Juan Ciscomani.
Colorado’s fifth congressional district: Democrat Jessica Killin, a former Army captain, beat first-term incumbent, Republican Jeff Crank, who was criticized by relatives of Virginia Giuffre for refusing to meet them.
North Carolina’s ninth congressional district: Democrat Richard Ojeda beat two-term Republican incumbent Richard Hudson in a seat that has been red for the last 14 years.
Ohio’s 10th congressional district: Democrat Kristina Knickerbocker beat veteran Republican congressman Mike Turner.

A federal panel is expected to approve Donald Trump’s proposed memorial arch in Washington on Thursday at the end of an hours-long meeting that drew dozens of opponents to a key part of the president’s push to leave his imprint on the nation’s capital.

Approval by the National Capital Planning Commission would clear a hurdle to breaking ground on the project, and the administration has said it could launch construction within a day of the vote.But the proposed 250-foot (76-meter) tall gilded arch still faces legal challenges, the AP reports.

The remote, call-in hearing drew witnesses who gave impassioned comments opposing an arch they said will destroy the solemnity of the nearby Arlington National Cemetery, where hundreds of thousands of fallen service members and military veterans are buried.

As of 8pm Eastern time – seven hours after the hearing began – there were still more than 60 people waiting to address the commission.But the panel’s Trump-appointed chairman, Mark Paoletta, launched the meeting with a gushing appraisal of the monument and lauded Trump for wanting to build it.Republican congressman Thomas Massie told Politico on Thursday that he could introduce his resolution to impeach Pete Hegseth, the first step in possibly forcing the US defense secretary from office, as soon as Monday. If so, that could set up a House floor vote as soon as next week.If Trump’s going to replace appointees like Hegseth, he should do it while he can still get the replacements confirmed in the Senate,” Massie observed on social media. “Also, my Hegseth impeachment resolution is a much gentler version of what’s coming when Dem’s control Congress. They’ll have hearings & trials.”

Faced with the prospect of impeachment and a trial in the Senate, where even many Republicans are critical of his leadership of the Pentagon, Hegseth and his family appeared to launch a coordinated social media campaign to burnish his reputation.The defense secretary, a former Fox weekend host who is married to his former producer there, posted a combative video on social media on Thursday. His brother, Phil Hegseth, appointed last years as senior adviser to the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and liaison officer to the defense department, posted a still photo of his brother in a helicopter with the caption: “Stand. Fight. Defend the Republic.”

As his narrow lead in the Mississippi Senate race expanded on Thursday, Democrat Scott Colom told NBC News that his party had all but abandoned the state before his campaign.

“First of all, let’s not give them too much credit; they haven’t been trying,” Colom said. I’ve been in Mississippi for 15 years, most of the time the Democrats conceded the state. And my frustration with that is, 38% of the population is African American; they’re very loyal Democrats. They vote 90-95% Democrat. There’s a lot of white rural Democrats across USA USA Mississippi.”“That’s a shame, right, because morally, how could you not compete in a state where people are denying folks health care? How could you not compete in a state where folks are, you know, getting betrayed on tariffs? Farmers are getting betrayed, consumers, small businesses. How could you not compete in a state where voting rights are being attacked left and right?” he added. “When you say, ‘Listen, I can’t win those voters’, what you’re saying is ‘I don’t care enough about those voters’. And when you show voters you don’t care, they don’t show up. So what I did is I showed up, and turns out when you show up, people start to believe.”

USA Colom’s Senate campaign, which benefitted from very little help from the national party, was propelled, in part, by a series of viral ads that he thanked his campaign’s content creators for producing this week, as his lead in the vote count expanded.

One ad, released in mid-October, racked up more than 20 million views across social networks. It seized on a remark by the Republican incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith, who tried to dodge a question from a TV anchor about the high price of beef by saying: “You have so many proteins to choose from”.

The ad, which begins with that gaffe, then cuts to three Mississippi voters responding to the senator. “Pick another protein?” a man grilling burgers says. “Shit, I’d rather pick another senator instead.”

Posted on 2026/11/06 09:22 AM