{"id":31454,"date":"2026-08-07T20:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T15:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=31454"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T15:32:10","slug":"will-mississippi-send-a-black-democrat-to-the-us-senate-scott-colom-says-dont-count-him-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=31454","title":{"rendered":"Will Mississippi send a Black Democrat to the US Senate? Scott Colom says don&#8217;t count him out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">JACKSON, Miss. &#8212; <\/span>JACKSON, Miss. (AP) \u2014 <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/mississippi-senate-race-scott-colom-cindy-hydesmith-1d4e7c697680626ea092242ecbad78d3\">Scott Colom<\/a> is a gregarious prosecutor who grew up in Mississippi with a Republican father who campaigned for Ronald Reagan and counted political titan Thad Cochran as a friend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">That background sounds ideal for a U.S. Senate hopeful in a Deep South state run for generations by white conservatives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Except Colom is a Democrat. And a Black man.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">So, he&#8217;s an underdog in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/mississippi-primary-senate-house-hydesmith-thompson-63f8b61010d58de41180049a7d774316\">Cindy Hyde-Smith<\/a>, a white Donald Trump acolyte seeking her second full term. Yet several variables \u2014 Colom\u2019s biography, Mississippi\u2019s demographics, lingering inflation and Hyde-Smith&#8217;s understated profile \u2014 make for a wildcard matchup as Republicans defend their 53-47 Senate majority at the midpoint of Trump&#8217;s second presidency. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cMississippi matters,\u201d Colom insisted throughout a recent day of campaigning. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">He told The Associated Press he has a rare opportunity to flip the state&#8217;s usual script by casting Hyde-Smith as a rubber stamp while deflecting broadsides that he&#8217;s a liberal misfit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI\u2019m going to fight the corruption that we\u2019re seeing in D.C. that\u2019s making everything less affordable,\u201d he said, zeroing in on <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-forced-labor-4ea091eeee3fa1bfbe55af3f482e6bc1\">Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a>, <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/iran\">the Iran war<\/a> and the Republican-controlled Congress\u2019 capitulation on both. \u201cOur junior senator has totally given away our voice. She\u2019s not worried about us at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Through aides, Hyde-Smith declined an interview. But her campaign manager projected confidence. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cNo one believes in Scott Colom except for Scott Colom,\u201d said Jake Monssen, tagging the challenger as a stooge of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and billionaire donor George Soros, whose family backed Colom&#8217;s district attorney races.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Schumer recently held a fundraiser for Colom, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, Maryland&#8217;s first Black senator, traveled to Mississippi to support him as <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/senate-democrats-platner-majority-ccd877475b8d97f13fdf5d1bf6040f8d\">Democrats look for every path<\/a> to Senate control. She predicted more senators will follow. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI can guarantee you one thing,\u201d Alsobrooks said, &#8220;I\u2019m not the last.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">As they campaigned together, Colom cited a famous biblical long shot while alluding to his state&#8217;s history at the vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cWe know a little something about David and Goliath in Mississippi,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Mississippi\u2019s <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/america-250-history-mississippi-slavery-trump-whitewash-a8a836ec20ada0776da18e87f90fe6b1\">fraught history with racism<\/a> is never far below the surface.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Colom\u2019s weekend featured a voting rights discussion at Jackson\u2019s Farish Street Baptist Church, where Medgar Evers, the NAACP leader killed by white supremacists in 1963, held organizing meetings. One of Evers\u2019 successors embraced Colom&#8217;s candidacy as the next step in a long struggle. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cMississippi is not just a moral argument,\u201d said state NAACP Executive Director Charles Taylor. \u201cIt is simple math.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Black voters make up a larger share of Mississippi&#8217;s 2.95 million residents (about 37%) and typical November electorate (about a third) than in any other state. More than 9 out of 10 of them typically vote Democratic but turn out at a lower rate than white voters, especially young generations, according to strategists in both major political parties. White voters opt by a 4-1 ratio or more for Republicans. Younger white voters trend slightly less Republican, but they&#8217;re also less likely to vote. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">That makes most Mississippi elections closer than in neighboring Alabama and Louisiana. In 2018, Hyde-Smith won a special election runoff over Mike Espy, Mississippi&#8217;s first Black congressman since Reconstruction and a former U.S. agriculture secretary, by 7 percentage points. She notched a 10-percentage-point <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-senate-elections-mississippi-mike-espy-66b9c0e86eebaf2e4ecef118798eb90d\">rematch win<\/a> in 2020 but trailed Trump\u2019s 16-percentage-point margin over Democrat Joe Biden. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Three years later, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves managed just a 3-percentage-point reelection margin and finished less than 1 percentage point over the majority threshold that Mississippi law requires to avoid a runoff in statewide general elections. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Taylor said registration and turnout efforts by the NAACP and other groups could draw 75,000 more Black voters, enough to close recent gaps. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Wilbur Colom, who once lost a state treasurer\u2019s race as a Republican, enjoys gaming out turnout scenarios for his son. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Scott Colom can hit a winning sweet spot, his father said, by increasing Black share of the electorate to 35% and get closer to one out of four white votes rather than the typical 20% or less. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThat\u2019s hard,\u201d Wilbur Colom said. \u201cBut demographics are our friend here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Colom mostly sidesteps Mississippi history or electoral math unless asked. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cWe\u2019ve made a lot more progress than we get credit for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cA lot of Mississippians,\u201d he added, \u201cwant somebody that\u2019s going to look out for them,\u201d regardless of race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">On Republican gerrymandering after <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-louisiana-alabama-4e3225083caccda5ec73a98533a79add\">the U.S. Supreme Court<\/a> gutted a last key Voting Rights Act provision protecting minority voting strength, Colom steers the conversation to economics. Republicans, Colom said, \u201cdon&#8217;t want to be held accountable\u201d for how things are going. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Asked about Biden tapping him for a federal judgeship only for Hyde-Smith to block the nomination, Colom says the campaign isn&#8217;t about that. He avoids personal shots at Trump, instead emphasizing Mississippi farmers harmed by the Republican president\u2019s tariffs and \u201c400,000 Mississippians that don\u2019t have health insurance\u201d because the state hasn\u2019t expanded Medicaid and Republicans, Hyde-Smith included, let expanded <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/affordable-care-act-obamacare-health-subsidies-premiums-3dc9a0cd249a7622ce31e8559bfff729\">insurance premium subsidies<\/a> expire. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Colom mentions crime victims and their families in his jurisdiction, promising voters will see them vouch for him. And he criticizes Hyde-Smith for using campaign funds at Las Vegas hotels. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cVoters in Mississippi were promised America first. They were promised lower grocery prices, no more endless wars, concepts of a healthcare plan,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been betrayed on all three fronts, and Cindy Hyde-Smith won\u2019t even do a town hall to justify any of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The senator&#8217;s aides note that she travels regularly to community events around Mississippi \u2014 and only annually to Las Vegas for a national campaign fundraiser the onetime state agriculture commissioner plans around a professional rodeo event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Hyde-Smith, in turn, frames Colom as beholden to extremes beyond Mississippi. Monssen said voters will see a challenger trying \u201cto transition kids\u2019 genders,\u201d raise taxes and give \u201chealthcare to illegal immigrants\u201d to please his \u201csocialist supporters\u201d from the coasts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">It\u2019s a play-it-safe strategy that presumes Republicans like Steve Rogers, a 73-year-old from Brandon, still make up Mississippi&#8217;s majority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI like how she votes, and I think any Democrat\u2019s wasting their time,\u201d Rogers said. He still gives Trump high marks and hasn&#8217;t even heard of Colom. Trump\u2019s slide \u201cmay give her some trouble,\u201d he allows, \u201cbut I think she coasts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Colom acknowledged financial support from the Soros family but said no candidate controls outside political action committees. He pointed to his prosecution of a Democratic sheriff for sexual abuse of a prisoner as proof that partisanship doesn\u2019t guide him. Voters, including many who&#8217;ve backed Trump and Hyde-Smith, \u201care smart enough,\u201d he said, to \u201csee through the lies.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Democrat Judy Weiner, a 72-year-old poll worker in Hinds County, added that Hyde-Smith distinguishes herself only by her fealty to Trump, while not establishing a reputation for securing appropriations and helping rank-and-file Mississippians, as did her predecessor Cochran. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cHe made his decisions based on what was good for all the people in Mississippi, not because the president whispered in his ear,\u201d she said, noting Cochran attracted votes from Black and white Democrats. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The candidates&#8217; campaign accounts and Mississippi&#8217;s inexpensive media markets intensify the unknowns. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Through June, Hyde-Smith had raised $3.8 million this cycle, with $2.5 million left. Colom pulled in $2.8 million and had $850,000 remaining. But Colom outpaced Hyde-Smith among individual contributors, $1.9 million to $1.8 million, from the start of 2025. More of his money ($536,000) came from Mississippi than any other state, despite Monssen&#8217;s broadsides. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">There is no statewide TV advertising yet, but Senate Majority PAC spokeswoman Lauren French said the group is \u201cwatching closely.\u201d And it doesn&#8217;t take seven figures per ad buy to penetrate the electorate, unlike in more populous states like Texas, Georgia and North Carolina. That means that either national party or super PACs could make late investments that matter. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">\u201cWe need to be working for every single seat,\u201d said Alsobrooks, the Maryland visitor, \u201cand you know what, it always seems impossible until it\u2019s done.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JACKSON, Miss. &#8212; JACKSON, Miss. (AP) \u2014 Scott Colom is a gregarious prosecutor who grew up in Mississippi with a Republican father who campaigned for Ronald Reagan and counted political titan Thad Cochran as a friend. That background sounds ideal for a U.S. Senate hopeful in a Deep South state run for generations by white&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/dd8660ec-b726-4730-a26d-fd5d4f49aabb\/wirestory_b4464afce3e9fa0cf5ff3842240e77f3_16x9.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}