Scott Colom, a Black district attorney from Mississippi, is mounting an uphill challenge against Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a staunch Trump ally seeking her second full term in a state where white conservatives have dominated for generations. But Colom isn't backing down. "Mississippi matters," he told The Associated Press during a recent day of campaigning, pointing to what he calls corruption in Washington that's making life less affordable for working families.
Colom's case against Hyde-Smith centers on bread-and-butter issues: Trump's tariffs hurting Mississippi farmers, an ongoing war in Iran, and a Republican-controlled Congress that's capitulated on both. "Our junior senator has totally given away our voice," Colom said. "She's not worried about us at all." He's also highlighting the 400,000 Mississippians without health insurance after the state refused to expand Medicaid and Republicans, Hyde-Smith included, let expanded insurance premium subsidies expire.
The Long Shot Math
The race is a wildcard for Democrats defending their path to Senate control. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority at the midpoint of Trump's second presidency, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer recently held a fundraiser for Colom. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, Maryland's first Black senator, traveled to Mississippi to campaign with him. "I can guarantee you one thing, I'm not the last," Alsobrooks said.
Charles Taylor, the Mississippi NAACP State Conference Executive Director, calls the outcome "simple math." Black voters make up about 37% of Mississippi's 2.95 million residents and about a third of the typical November electorate, more than in any other state, according to strategists in both major parties. More than 9 out of 10 Black voters typically vote Democratic but turn out at a lower rate than white voters, especially younger generations. White voters opt by a 4-1 ratio or more for Republicans.
That math has kept Mississippi elections closer than neighboring states. In 2018, Hyde-Smith won a special election runoff over Mike Espy, Mississippi's first Black congressman since Reconstruction, by 7 percentage points. She won a rematch in 2020 by 10 percentage points but trailed Trump's 16-point margin over Democrat Joe Biden. Three years ago, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves won reelection by just 3 percentage points and finished less than 1 percentage point over the majority threshold Mississippi law requires to avoid a runoff.
Taylor said registration and turnout efforts by the NAACP and other groups could draw 75,000 more Black voters, enough to close recent gaps. Wilbur Colom, Scott's father who once lost a state treasurer's race as a Republican, said his son could win by increasing the Black share of the electorate to 35% and getting closer to one out of four white votes rather than the typical 20% or less. "That's hard," Wilbur Colom acknowledged. "But demographics are our friend here."
A Campaign Rooted in Community
Colom's weekend included a voting rights discussion at Jackson's Farish Street Baptist Church, where Medgar Evers, the NAACP leader killed by white supremacists in 1963, held organizing meetings. The gregarious prosecutor who grew up in Mississippi with a Republican father who campaigned for Ronald Reagan invoked the state's civil rights history. "We know a little something about David and Goliath in Mississippi," he said.
He's mostly sidestepping race and history, focusing instead on accountability. On Republican gerrymandering after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted a key Voting Rights Act provision protecting minority voting strength, Colom steers the conversation to economics. Republicans, he said, "don't want to be held accountable" for how things are going. Asked about Biden tapping him for a federal judgeship only for Hyde-Smith to block the nomination, Colom said the campaign isn't about that.
He avoids personal shots at Trump, instead emphasizing Mississippi farmers harmed by the Republican president's tariffs. "Voters in Mississippi were promised America first. They were promised lower grocery prices, no more endless wars, concepts of a healthcare plan," he said. "We've been betrayed on all three fronts, and Cindy Hyde-Smith won't even do a town hall to justify any of it."
The Republican Response
Through aides, Hyde-Smith declined an interview. Her campaign manager, Jake Monssen, said, "No one believes in Scott Colom except for Scott Colom," and called him a stooge of Schumer and billionaire donor George Soros, whose family backed Colom's district attorney races. Monssen said voters will see Colom as trying "to transition kids' genders," raise taxes and give "healthcare to illegal immigrants" to please his "socialist supporters" from the coasts.
Hyde-Smith's aides say she travels regularly to community events around Mississippi and only annually to Las Vegas for a national campaign fundraiser the onetime state agriculture commissioner plans around a professional rodeo event. Colom criticizes Hyde-Smith for using campaign funds at Las Vegas hotels.
Republican Steve Rogers, 73, of Brandon, said, "I like how she votes, and I think any Democrat's wasting their time." He said Trump still gets high marks from him and that he hasn't even heard of Colom. Trump's slide "may give her some trouble," Rogers said, "but I think she coasts."
Colom acknowledged financial support from the Soros family but said no candidate controls outside political action committees. He pointed to his prosecution of a Democratic sheriff for sexual abuse of a prisoner as proof that partisanship doesn't guide him. Voters, including many who've backed Trump and Hyde-Smith, "are smart enough," he said, to "see through the lies."
What Voters Are Saying
Judy Weiner, a 72-year-old poll worker in Hinds County, said Hyde-Smith distinguishes herself only by her fealty to Trump and not by securing appropriations and helping rank-and-file Mississippians, as her predecessor Thad Cochran did. "He made his decisions based on what was good for all the people in Mississippi, not because the president whispered in his ear," she said, noting Cochran attracted votes from Black and white Democrats.
The candidates' campaign accounts and Mississippi's inexpensive media markets add to the uncertainty. Through June, Hyde-Smith had raised $3.8 million this cycle and had $2.5 million left. Colom had raised $2.8 million and had $850,000 remaining. Colom outpaced Hyde-Smith among individual contributors, $1.9 million to $1.8 million, from the start of 2025, and more of his money, $536,000, came from Mississippi than any other state.
There's no statewide TV advertising yet, but Senate Majority PAC spokeswoman Lauren French said the group is "watching closely." It doesn't take seven figures per ad buy to penetrate the electorate, unlike in more populous states such as Texas, Georgia and North Carolina, so late national party or super PAC spending could matter. Alsobrooks said, "We need to be working for every single seat," and added, "and you know what, it always seems impossible until it's done."
Why This Matters:
Mississippi's Senate race reveals how demographic shifts and economic frustration can create openings even in states long dominated by one party. With Black voters making up more than a third of the state's population but turning out at lower rates than white voters, the outcome hinges on whether civil rights organizations can mobilize 75,000 additional voters. The stakes extend beyond Mississippi: Democrats need every possible path to regain Senate control, and Republicans' 53-47 majority depends on holding seats in states where Trump's popularity has slipped. For Mississippi's 400,000 uninsured residents and farmers hurt by tariffs, the race offers a referendum on whether their senator fights for their interests or follows party leadership. Colom's prosecution background and focus on accountability over partisan attacks represents a bet that voters care more about results than ideology, testing whether economic concerns can overcome Mississippi's historical voting patterns.