Mississippi Senate race hangs by a razor-thin margin

A few dozen votes currently separate the two candidates for Mississippi's open U.S. Senate seat. With 96% of the vote counted Wednesday morning, the race between incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Scott Colom remains unresolved. The narrow gap is unusual for a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982.

Hyde-Smith, 67, has served in the Senate since 2018. She is seeking reelection in a district where President Trump won by 20 points in the 2024 election. Colom, 43, is a district attorney and a seventh-generation Mississippian. He campaigned heavily on health care and cost of living concerns.

Democrats viewed this race as a potential pickup in recent weeks. They began investing resources after seeing wins in other Senate contests Tuesday night. Those victories included a win in a state Trump carried in 2024. If Colom wins, he would add to the Democratic majority in the new Congress. The party already secured enough seats to hold that majority without the Mississippi result.

Colom addressed supporters in the early hours of Wednesday. He stated that results were trending in his favor. "We are trending in counties that people thought we had no chance to compete in," he said. "And we're winning them."

The unresolved status of this race affects the final size of the Democratic majority. Alaska's Senate race is also outstanding. Until both contests are decided, the exact number of seats Democrats will hold remains uncertain.