Mississippi Senate race is toss-up, with razor-thin margin

Key points

• Democrat Scott Colom leads Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by just over 1,100 votes with about 96% counted.
• Mississippi's Senate race is unresolved, a surprising result in a state Trump won by 20 points in 2024.
• Democrats have secured Senate control; a Colom win would add to their majority, with Alaska still outstanding.

The Senate race in Mississippi remains undecided, with Democrat Scott Colom running a surprisingly close challenge against incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. With about 96% of the vote counted, Colom led Hyde-Smith by just over 1,100 votes at last report, after the candidates were separated by only a few dozen votes at one point Wednesday morning.

Hyde-Smith, 67, has held the Senate seat since 2018 and is seeking reelection. Colom, 43, is a district attorney and a seventh-generation Mississippian who campaigned on cost of living and health care.

A deep-red state in play

The close margin is striking for Mississippi, which President Trump won by 20 points in 2024 and which has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982. Democrats began investing in the race in recent weeks after seeing a possible pickup, though the outcome still looked exceedingly unlikely heading into Election Day.

The results are all trending in our direction.

— Scott Colom

National stakes and other races

Democrats won a series of Senate races Tuesday night, including in states Trump carried by double digits in 2024, and secured enough seats to take control of the chamber in the new year. A Colom victory would add to that majority.

The Mississippi result comes as Alaska's Senate race is also outstanding, leaving the size of the Democrats' majority unclear.

What Colom said

Speaking to supporters in the early hours of Wednesday, Colom said the results were moving his way. "We are trending in counties that people thought we had no chance to compete in," he said, adding that his campaign was winning them.