Three years after Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked Scott Colom’s appointment as a federal judge, the 43-year-old Democrat has unseated her to become Mississippi’s first Black senator elected in over 150 years.
Colom’s historic victory, announced on Wednesday, November 11, has given Democrats a 55-seat majority in the United States Senate, dealing another blow to President Donald Trump.
Interestingly, Trump won Mississippi by nearly 23 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.
Colom defeated Hyde-Smith by a mere 4,645 votes following more than a week of ballot counting.
Who is Scott Colom?
Colom has been serving as a district attorney in Mississippi since 2016.
In October 2022, then-US president Joe Biden nominated him for a federal judgeship, but Hyde-Smith subsequently blocked his nomination.
“He thought he was going to be a federal judge, and I blocked him,” the Republican senator boasted while launching her re-election campaign last year.
During his election campaign, Colom capitalised on Americans’ frustration over rising consumer prices.
One of his campaign advertisements went viral after Hyde-Smith suggested consumers could choose alternative sources of protein amid soaring beef prices.
Colom’s supporters suggested choosing another senator instead.
Why is Colom’s victory historic?
Mississippi last elected a Black senator, Blanche Bruce, who was born into slavery, in 1874.
Both Bruce and his predecessor Hiram Revels were elected by the state legislature rather than the general public, making Colom Mississippi’s first popularly elected Black senator.
Meanwhile, Democrats could further extend their Senate majority to 56 seats as the Alaska race remains undecided.
