Onyx Bugett | TalkLife News
November 12, 2026 | Politics and public affairs
Archival illustration: the U.S. Capitol’s east front, September 2, 2013. This is not a photograph of the Mississippi election, a victory event or current congressional proceedings. Photo: Martin Falbisoner / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized for display; image adaptations remain under the same license.
Democrat Scott Colom is projected to defeat Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate election, a result that would make him the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction and add another Democratic seat to the next Congress.
The Associated Press called the race Wednesday, November 11, after county vote updates strengthened Colom’s lead. Reuters reported that the outcome would also make him the first Democrat to win a Mississippi Senate election since 1982. Its report placed Democrats at 55 Senate seats, with Alaska still unresolved.
The result emerged after days of counting rather than an election-night announcement. In its explanation published by Mississippi Today, AP said an update from Jackson County put Colom ahead by 4,669 votes out of 962,237 counted, a margin of approximately half a percentage point.
That update mattered because Hyde-Smith needed to gain ground in the remaining Republican-leaning counties. Instead, AP said, Colom narrowly won the new batch of Jackson County votes. His advantage had increased from a 43-vote lead at the last election-night update.
AP estimated fewer than 12,000 votes remained for county officials to review. Many were provisional ballots, known in Mississippi as affidavit ballots; not every ballot under review would necessarily qualify to be counted. The reporting describes a review process, rather than evidence that outstanding ballots were automatically included or rejected.
ABC News’s November 11 results report listed Colom at 49.2% and Hyde-Smith at 48.7%, with 99% of the expected vote reported. Those are reported tallies at that point in the count, not certified final percentages.
The distinction between calling a race and certifying it remains important. A news organization’s projection assesses whether the remaining votes can change the outcome. Election officials separately complete the official process. ABC reported a Friday, November 13 certification deadline.
For readers in Jacksonville, Brooklyn and beyond, Mississippi’s result carries two forms of significance: a change in representation with a long historical backdrop, and another change in the balance of the Senate. Neither establishes in advance how Colom will vote on individual bills or what legislation the next Congress will enact.