{"id":31763,"date":"2026-08-08T02:04:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=31763"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:04:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:04:53","slug":"mississippi-senate-race-highlights-shifting-map-as-democrats-and-republicans-battle-for-majority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=31763","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi Senate race highlights shifting map as Democrats and Republicans battle for majority"},"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 \">The battle for control of the U.S. Senate isn&#8217;t supposed to run through Mississippi. Scott Colom is trying to convince people that it could. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cWe can win here, and we&#8217;re going to,\u201d said Colom, the Democratic nominee who&#8217;s <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/mississippi-senate-colom-hyde-smith-trump-b4464afce3e9fa0cf5ff3842240e77f3\">trying to unseat<\/a> Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith as she seeks her second full term. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">That could be typical candidate bravado, and Republicans say he has little chance. But Colom is drawing attention for a potentially competitive campaign, a reflection of a wider Senate map than either party envisioned at the midpoint of Donald Trump&#8217;s second presidency. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Democrats must pick up <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\">at least four new seats<\/a> to win the majority \u2014 and more than that if they lose any they currently hold. That includes Michigan, where Republicans are feeling more confident since progressive <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/michigan-primary-senate-elsayed-stevens-60c79349b60ffbf24a34d60b76e130ed\">Abdul El-Sayed<\/a> won the Democratic nomination this week. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cWe can\u2019t spare a single seat,\u201d Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said in an interview while she was in Mississippi on Colom&#8217;s behalf. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">She said Democrats have an opportunity to be competitive in more places because of voter angst over an uneven, inflationary economy. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThey cannot afford their groceries,&#8221; she said. &#8220;They cannot afford the cost of gas. They cannot afford housing. It\u2019s all over the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Republicans remain confident they can hold power, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune even said in a recent fundraising email that an expanded map could backfire on Democrats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cBy scrambling the Democrats, we\u2019ll spread their resources thin, making it nearly impossible for them to flip the seats they need to take the majority,\u201d he wrote to donors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Here&#8217;s a look at four wildcard contests that could make headlines in November. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Colom would be his state&#8217;s first Black senator since Reconstruction \u2014 the 12-year period after the U.S. Civil War when the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were adopted. He&#8217;d also be Mississippi&#8217;s first new Democratic senator since the 1940s. (Those lawmakers were Jim Crow segregationists who were first elected before white Southerners shifted to the Republican Party.) <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Now a district attorney, Colom needs a fundraising uptick to introduce himself to voters and attack Hyde-Smith on the airwaves. Mississippi remains small enough that retail campaigning still matters, while television ads remain much less expensive than in places like Texas, where James Talarico is running against Ken Paxton. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Mississippi governor\u2019s 2023 race was decided by 3 percentage points. To close the gap, Colom would need to increase Mississippi&#8217;s usual Black turnout by a few percentage points and get a larger share of the white vote than Democrats typically do. He insists he can do both in part because of Hyde-Smith&#8217;s unfailing loyalty to Trump and policies that have saddled Mississippi farmers with tariffs, consumers with higher gas prices and made it harder for Mississippians to have health insurance. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Hyde-Smith, first appointed and then elected in 2018, is using a familiar playbook of portraying her Democratic opponent as too liberal for Mississippi. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Notably, Mississippi requires a majority to win a statewide election. With minor candidates on the ballot, there&#8217;s a scenario where Colom pulls an upset or at least forces a runoff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Republican Sen. Joni Ernst opted against a reelection bid, and it&#8217;s always easier to flip an open seat than defeat an incumbent. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Democrats nominated state lawmaker and wheelchair basketball star Josh Turek, 47, while Republicans opted for U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, 43, who has Trump&#8217;s endorsement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Iowa has moved rightward in the Trump era, especially in small towns and rural areas. But it wasn&#8217;t that long ago that voters here sent Barack Obama on his way to the presidency and elected a bipartisan congressional delegation that included liberal stalwart Tom Harkin in the Senate. Even in the 2018 midterms, during Trump&#8217;s first presidency, Democrats won three out of four U.S. House seats. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">They&#8217;ve since flipped to Republicans. But now the most conservative areas in Iowa \u2014 those centered around the agricultural economy \u2014 feel the pinch of the president&#8217;s tariff rollercoaster. Combined with Trump&#8217;s unpopularity with college-educated voters and the liberal tilt of urban places like Des Moines and Iowa City, the electoral math could look more like 2008 or 2018 than 2024. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">And Obama, who&#8217;s been sparing in his endorsements so far this year, has endorsed Turek \u2014 <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/obama-josh-turek-iowa-senate-571bcd5377eca160eac686f57875f663\">on the basketball court. <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">This is a famously Republican state in federal elections. It hasn&#8217;t had a Democratic senator since the New Deal era of the 1930s. But the state has elected a Democratic governor four times since 2002. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Democratic Senate nominee <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/methodist-megachurch-pastor-kansas-senate-candidate-c703c399ddd3f16a0f0d9dab1cc08e05\">Adam Hamilton<\/a> hopes that voters&#8217; struggles during Trump&#8217;s presidency will be enough to help him unseat Republican Sen. Roger Marshall. Hamilton has a notable biography: He&#8217;s a high-profile United Methodist megachurch minister and author who has avoided partisan politics and is running for office for the first time. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI didn\u2019t plan to run for office. I\u2019ve spent my life as a pastor, and I try to care for people,\u201d the 62-year-old said in his primary victory speech. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Marshall has the state&#8217;s fundamentals on his side. But the 65-year-old also is seeking reelection for the first time after winning in 2020 with Trump at the top of the ticket. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">There is no Democrat in this race, at least officially. But national Democrats <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/independents-democrats-election-strategy-senate-nebraska-osborn-307c163f3ee4a3cb295ee4b592901dc2\">back independent Dan Osborn<\/a>, a former labor union chief, as their choice to unseat Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">It&#8217;s the second time Osborn and Democrats have tried this approach. Osborn lost to Republican Sen. Deb Fischer by 7 points in 2024. She won all 89 Nebraska counties. But she also finished well short of Trump&#8217;s 21-point gap in the presidential contest. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The thinking is that voters have experienced enough of Trump and the Capitol Hill Republicans who\u2019ve mostly facilitated his agenda. Osborn\u2019s labor background also stands in stark contrast to that of the megamillionaire Ricketts, whose billionaire father founded TD Ameritrade and whose family owns Major League Baseball\u2019s Chicago Cubs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">To be sure, Osborn has not said he\u2019d caucus with Senate Democrats. But he could at least deny Republicans a seat. And like other middle America states that have moved rightward, plenty of Nebraskans remember electing moderate senators: Democrat Ben Nelson retired in 2013. <\/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>The battle for control of the U.S. Senate isn&#8217;t supposed to run through Mississippi. Scott Colom is trying to convince people that it could. \u201cWe can win here, and we&#8217;re going to,\u201d said Colom, the Democratic nominee who&#8217;s trying to unseat Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith as she seeks her second full term. That could be&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/61e45ccc-0803-4cf1-b92c-c2d588c9ce02\/wirestory_785be60ca6684d8ca2161755019f9a2a_16x9.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31763","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\/31763","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=31763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}