The race for a United States Senate seat in Mississippi remains on a knife-edge more than a week after the midterm elections, with Democratic candidate Scott Colom holding a narrow lead over incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.
According to the latest vote count, Colom leads by approximately 2,500 votes, representing less than 1 percent of the total ballots cast.
If the result holds, Colom would make history as Mississippi’s first Democratic senator in nearly 40 years and the state’s first Black senator in more than 140 years.
The outcome could also strengthen the Democrats’ position in the Senate, increasing their majority to 55 seats, while another closely contested race in Alaska remains undecided.
Colom’s strong performance has surprised many political observers in a state that has long been considered a Republican stronghold. President Donald Trump carried Mississippi by more than 22 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election, making the current Senate contest one of the biggest upsets of the election cycle if Democrats ultimately prevail.
However, the race has not yet been officially decided. Thousands of outstanding ballots remain to be counted, including postal ballots and affidavit ballots.
Affidavit ballots, often referred to as provisional ballots, are cast when a voter faces an issue at the polling station, such as missing identification or discrepancies in registration records. Those voters are then given an opportunity to resolve the issue before their ballot can be included in the final tally.
Under Mississippi election law, the deadline for processing both mail-in and affidavit ballots is Tuesday, while election officials have until Friday to certify the final results.
Election analysts say the remaining ballots could still influence the outcome, meaning both campaigns are continuing to closely monitor the count as the state awaits an official result.
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