Mississippi Senate Race Heats Up

Mississippi holds the highest share of Black voters in the nation, yet it remains one of the most reliable Republican states in the country.

With twelve days left until the election, both parties have flooded the state with millions of dollars in late-stage spending as they fight to turn a deep red seat into a competitive race.

President Donald Trump campaigned in Corinth on Monday to motivate Republican voters. He joined incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith to urge the base to show up at the polls.

Hyde-Smith has held the seat since 2018, when she won a special election by seven points. She won her full term in 2024 by a twenty-three point margin.

Her opponent is Scott Colom, a district attorney who challenged her nomination to a federal judgeship during the Biden administration.

Colom argues that the Democratic Party has historically neglected the state. He told reporters that the party spent hundreds of millions of dollars in other states but almost nothing in Mississippi.

"The reality is, Mississippi has never been a lost cause, we've been a betrayed cause," Colom said.

The Democratic campaign has spent approximately five million dollars this month. The Republican campaign has spent $3.2 million. The Hyde-Smith campaign has allocated more than $1.3 million to a specific advertisement titled "Most Radical."

The ad claims Colom is beholden to the far left and that violent crime doubled during his tenure as district attorney.

Democrats, meanwhile, have focused on a message that links Hyde-Smith directly to the unpopular presidency of Donald Trump.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris joined Colom at a rally in his hometown on Thursday. About one thousand people attended the event in a high school gymnasium.

Harris described the current administration as the most callous and incompetent in history. She urged attendees to turn their anger into action before the November 3 vote closes the polls early in the South's key states. Early voting has already begun in some jurisdictions, showing a spike in Black voter participation compared to previous cycles. This trend has been observed in Louisiana and other nearby states, according to Ashley Kennedy Shelton, who runs a nonpartisan civic engagement group there. "I think you're going to see voters truly show up, because folks are just tired," Shelton said. In Mississippi, Republicans have indicated they may redraw state legislative and judicial maps after the midterms. Colom argues this move seeks to shift power from voters to party leaders. Hyde-Smith's campaign manager, Jake Monssen, expressed confidence in his candidate's reelection. "We are confident that Mississippians will once again send Cindy Hyde-Smith to the U.S. Senate," Monssen said in a statement. He noted that Trump accepted an offer to help with get-out-the-vote efforts. "Mississippians deserve to hear directly from their President about the consequences of electing Democrats," Monssen added. Hyde-Smith framed the race as a choice between socialism and capitalism. "It could not be higher stakes," she said at the Corinth rally. Trump told supporters that he visited because polls showed Hyde-Smith in strong shape. "Sometimes when you think somebody's doing so well, nobody votes," Trump said. "And then bad things happen, Cindy. That's why I'm here, just get out and vote." The last Democrat to win a Senate seat in Mississippi did so in the early 1980s. The last Black candidate to win a statewide office in the state was during Reconstruction. Colom believes the current environment favors his side. "If Cindy Hyde-Smith was focused on the voters, it'd be tough," he said. "But it's very clear the voters of Mississippi want to fire her."