Scott Colom, a Democrat, won a nail-biter, in his bid to become the first Black Senator in Mississippi in nearly a century and a half.
Coming into the election, Mississippi was tightly under Republican control, and the last Black Senator in the state left office in the 1880s.
A former district attorney, Colom’s campaign focused, in part, on delivering high wages and lower costs for families.
Colom’s victory was one of the most significant upsets of the election. The race took over a week to call, with Colom holding a slight lead throughout.
Donald Trump had carried the state by a significant margin in the 2024 presedential contest. Colom ran against Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Trump loyalist.
Coming into the election, Colom was a district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District, covering eastern parts of the state. Previously, he was nominated to serve as a federal judge by President Joe Biden — twice — but was not confirmed by the Senate, where he faced opposition from his future opponent, Hyde-Smith, among others.
Colom has called for a pause on data center construction, “until tech companies sign commitments that they will pay their fair share.” Colom’s campaign also criticized his Republican opponent for not acting on a bill that his campaign argued would prevent data centers from increasing energy costs.
Prior Emancipator reporting has explored how the placement of data centers near communities of color shows the continuing impact of historic redlining practices.
Mississippi has not had a Black Senator since the Reconstruction era.
Terrorist violence and restrictive voting codes pushed out Blanche Bruce, the last Black person to hold a Senate seat in the state, in the 1880s.
The legacy of the post-Reconstruction era violence has continued to haunt the state, which has had lynching concerns, including the death of Tasia Fortune earlier this year, as The Emancipator has covered.
In a historical irony this election, Colom carried Forrest County, a jurisdiction in Mississippi named to honor the Klu Klux Klan leader and Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest.
During the campaign, Colom received significant campaign support from Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, who viewed the campaign as vital for Democrat strategy.
“I am here because I am tired of the South being overlooked or diminished in terms of its electoral importance,” Warnock told Mississippi Public Broadcasting in October. “We ignore the South at our own peril. Democrats are investing here. I would like to see more, for the sake of the country.”
