Democrat Scott Colom leads GOP incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in close Mississippi Senate race

UPDATE - follow-up to Mississippi Senate race is toss-up, with razor-thin margin: Democrat Scott Colom holds a narrow lead of over 2,500 votes against Republican incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi's unresolved Senate race, with about 96 percent of the vote counted.

Vote Count

State officials report that roughly 3,300 mail ballots remain, alongside an unconfirmed number of affidavit ballots. Mail ballots must arrive within five business days, while affidavit ballots must be processed before the 10-day certification window closes on November 13. Mississippi law does not permit recounts, meaning the winner will be decided by a plurality.

Campaign and Background

Sixty-seven-year-old Hyde-Smith has held her Senate seat since 2018. Forty-three-year-old Colom, a district attorney and seventh-generation Mississippian, focused his campaign on healthcare and cost-of-living. President Trump won the state by 20 points in 2024, and Mississippi has not elected a Democratic senator since 1982. The candidates previously clashed when Hyde-Smith declined to back Colom's federal judicial nomination in April 2023 under the Senate blue slip tradition.

Reactions and Legal Moves

Both campaigns express confidence, with Hyde-Smith predicting victory from remaining Republican county votes and Colom stating the results trend in his favor. The National Republican Senatorial Committee and Hyde-Smith campaign requested that counties preserve all affidavit ballots, which the Colom campaign dismissed as a desperate stunt while deploying legal resources alongside the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Mississippi Republican Party Chair Mike Hurst stated the race is far from over at a Thursday news conference.

Context

This contest stands alongside Alaska's race as one of only two remaining unresolved Senate contests in the nation. Democrats have already secured enough overall seats to control the chamber in the new year, leaving the final size of their majority dependent on these remaining results.