Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith has conceded Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race to Democrat Scott Colom, ending a week of ballot counting and making Colom the first Black senator elected from the state since Reconstruction.
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Hyde-Smith conceded Wednesday evening, hours after CNN projected Colom as the winner and the Associated Press followed with its own call. Colom had publicly called on her to concede before the first projection came in.
“Over the past week, our campaign has worked tirelessly to ensure every legally cast vote was counted and that the people of Mississippi received a fair and transparent election,” Hyde-Smith said. “While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters.”
She then congratulated Scott Colom by name and wished him well “as he takes on the tremendous responsibility of representing our great state.”
The concession closes out one of the tightest Senate races in the country. Election night came and went without a winner. In the days that followed, the gap between the two candidates hovered around 2,000 votes, and talk of a possible recount grew. During the count, Hyde-Smith posted on Facebook that her team was “not backing down.” On Wednesday, she stepped aside.
Scott Colom’s win breaks two long streaks at once. He is the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi since 1982. He is also the state’s first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction, the period right after the Civil War when Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce represented Mississippi in the Senate. Mississippi has the highest share of Black residents of any state, yet it went nearly 150 years without sending a Black senator to Washington.
Colom currently serves as district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District, based in Columbus. He campaigned on wages, the cost of living, hospitals and jobs. “Mississippi has never been a lost cause,” Colom said during the campaign. “We’ve been a betrayed cause.”
The two candidates have a history that goes beyond this race. Hyde-Smith previously blocked Colom’s nomination to a federal judgeship. Now he is taking her seat.
Maryland Senator Angela Alsobrooks, her state’s first Black senator and the first Democratic senator to campaign with Colom this year, said she saw a “belief problem” among Mississippi voters after years of Democratic losses. After this race, she said, “They now know that their vote matters.”
Hyde-Smith spent most of her speech thanking supporters and defending her record. She thanked her family, her campaign and Senate staff, volunteers, donors and “the thousands of Mississippians who stood with us.” She listed what she considers her biggest accomplishments: fighting for farmers, strengthening the military, supporting veterans, opposing abortion, which she described as defending “the unborn,” and bringing billions of dollars in investments to communities across Mississippi.
“An election may come to an end, but our commitment to Mississippi never will,” she said.
She also spoke about what comes next for her. “While my time in the United States Senate may be coming to an end, my love for Mississippi and my determination to stand up for what is right never will,” Hyde-Smith said, before closing with “God bless Mississippi and God bless the United States of America.”
Hyde-Smith was appointed to the Senate in 2018 to fill the seat left by Thad Cochran and won a special election later that year. Colom will be sworn in when the new Congress begins in January.
