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Mississippi voters elected Democrat Scott Colom to the US Senate on November 11, 2026, in a tight contest that has been described as a major upset by multiple news outlets. The Associated Press reported that Colom defeated Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by a margin of less than one percentage point after days of counting absentee and provisional ballots. Colom, who had served as district attorney for the 16th Judicial District since 2016, will become the first Democrat to hold the seat since 1982 and the first Black senator from the state in more than 150 years.
Before Scott Colom, these two men were the last black US senators in Mississippi, according to a BBC News analysis of the state’s political history. Hiram Revels, a Republican born in 1827, became the first Black person to serve in the US Senate when the Mississippi legislature selected him in 1870 to fill an unexpired term. Revels had worked as a minister and educator and advocated for racial equality during his brief time in office, which lasted just over a year.
Blanche Bruce followed Revels as the next Black senator from Mississippi, entering the chamber in 1875 after being born into slavery in Virginia in 1841. According to historical records cited by CNN, Bruce became the first Black senator to serve a full six-year term and focused on issues including civil rights and education reform. He remained in Washington following his Senate service, taking a position at the Treasury Department.
Both Revels and Bruce served during the Reconstruction period immediately after the Civil War, when federal oversight allowed greater political participation for Black Americans in the South. Al Jazeera noted that the pair were chosen by the state legislature rather than by popular vote, as direct election of senators did not begin until 1913. Their tenures ended before the rise of Jim Crow laws that severely restricted Black voting and office-holding in Mississippi for generations.
Colom’s campaign emphasized economic issues such as raising the minimum wage and protecting rural hospitals, which resonated with voters in a state with one of the largest Black populations in the country. The candidate, a 43-year-old seventh-generation Mississippian with a background in law and local judging, received support from national Democrats including senators Raphael Warnock and Angela Alsobrooks. His victory speech at Tougaloo College paid tribute to civil rights figures like Fannie Lou Hamer and Medgar Evers, according to reports from the Los Angeles Times.
The outcome increases the number of Black US senators to a record seven and contributes to Democrats securing a 55-seat majority in the chamber. Hyde-Smith, who had held the position since 2018, conceded the race and congratulated Colom in a message posted on X. Political observers have highlighted the result as evidence of shifting dynamics in the Deep South, where Black voter turnout played a key role.
Mississippi had not elected a Black official to statewide office since the Reconstruction era until Colom’s win. A US Census Bureau assessment places the state’s Black population at approximately 38 percent, the highest proportion of any state. Colom’s family includes lawyers on both sides, with his father having run for office as a Republican in the 1980s.
