Democrat Scott Colom has won the US Senate race in Mississippi, delivering a shock victory for the party in a deeply conservative state that has elected Republicans for decades.
Colom’s victory makes him the first black person from Mississippi to be elected to the US Senate since 1874.
Fewer than five thousand votes out of nearly a million counted separated him from his Republican opponent, the incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.
The result means the Democrats will hold 55 seats in the 100-member Senate, with a knife-edge race in Alaska still to be called.
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Scott Colom, 43, won with 49.2% of the vote. Hyde-Smith, who received 48.7%, congratulated Colom in a video posted on X on Wednesday evening and wished him well.
“While this was not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters,” she said.
Colom offered a victory speech on the campus of Tougaloo College, met by hundreds of cheering supporters standing side-by-side under the night sky.
Excitement filled the air as he thanked them for the support over the days of waiting for a result since the 4 November election.
“They did not believe a moment like this was possible, but I kept the faith,” Colom said.
“It’s not something that I did y’all,” he continued. “It’s something we did.”
“In Mississippi, it’s local people that make the difference.”
Dozens of people were gathered at the Mississippi HQ of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Jackson on Wednesday when Colom’s victory was announced.
The room burst into deafening applause and cheers.
“This is an amazing result,” said Leon Russell, chairman of the NAACP board.
“This is purely the work of, particularly, the black community,” he continued. “There was not a whole lot of money, but there was a whole lot of organising.
“This is a historic election.”
Across the room, filled with people embracing, Amber Thomas sat, revelling in the victory.
“When you fight, you win,” Thomas said. “Right now, I am overwhelmed with joy.”
The last black senator in the state before Colom was Blanche Bruce, who was elected in 1874 and served until 1881.
It has taken a century and a half to elect a new one. Colom strove to engage Republican voters, even going to a Trump rally to speak to people in line outside.
Another key moment was his opponent telling voters to “pick another protein” when asked about surging beef prices, something Colom turned into a viral advert of his own.
The contest was never expected to be this close, with Hyde-Smith running for re-election in a state that President Donald Trump won in the 2024 election by more than 22 points.
But Democrats have scored a series of major wins in these midterm elections, taking control of both the US House of Representatives and the Senate.
The party flipped Senate seats in Republican strongholds, including Texas, South Carolina, Kansas and Iowa.
Polls suggest this was due in large part to voter frustrations with the economy and the Iran war under President Trump.
Scott Colom appeared to ride a national wave of resentment against Republicans.
Voter backlash against Trump’s Republican Party has been driven in large part by economic woes, blamed on his administration’s tariffs and war with Iran, according to exit polls.
Colom, a local prosecutor, used the national mood to his advantage, highlighting his opponent’s support for Trump’s tariffs and giving her the nickname “Cindy High Prices”.
The Democrat campaigned aggressively, visiting all of Mississippi’s 82 counties.
BBC