Democrat Scott Colom widened his lead over Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith to 1,138 votes in Mississippi, with an estimated 96% of ballots counted early on Thursday. The race remained too close for the Associated Press to call as Republicans argued over why they had lost control of both chambers of Congress in the US midterm elections.
Mississippi’s closest count in decades
Colom had 464,926 votes to Hyde-Smith’s 463,788 in the early Thursday tally. Independent candidate Ty Pinkins had just under 20,000 votes. Colom’s advantage had stood at only a few dozen votes earlier on Wednesday, and strong support in majority-Black counties helped keep the Democratic challenger ahead statewide.
Mississippi has until 10 November to resolve provisional ballots, several thousand of which are expected to be counted. A Colom victory would be the first by a Democrat in a Mississippi US Senate race since 1982, when John Stennis won his final term. Hyde-Smith won re-election in 2020 by about 10 percentage points.
Republicans offer competing explanations
President Donald Trump attributed the losses to his absence from the ballot. Vice-President JD Vance blamed the war in Iran, and Trump later said there was substantial truth in Vance’s assessment. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pointed to campaign strategy, arguing that Republicans had failed to spend enough of their advertising money on issues that would bring voters out.
The dispute has already spread to the party’s leadership in the House. Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan both launched bids to lead Republicans in the minority, while Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries announced his candidacy for speaker. Jeffries said voters had given Democrats a mandate to bring down the cost of living.
What an upset would change
Democrats have already secured a Senate majority, but another seat would give them more room to absorb defections on votes that require a simple majority. For Republicans, the significance goes beyond the Senate arithmetic. A seat the party held by double digits six years ago is now close enough for provisional ballots to matter.
NewsHub Finance | US Politics | 5 November 2026
Democrat Scott Colom widened his lead over Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith to 1,138 votes in Mississippi, with an estimated 96% of ballots counted early on Thursday. The race remained too close for the Associated Press to call as Republicans argued over why they had lost control of both chambers of Congress in the US midterm elections.
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