Mississippi's wait to learn who won its US Senate race is nearly over, almost a week after the midterm elections, in a contest that could give the state its first Democratic senator in nearly four decades.
Democrat Scott Colom leads Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by about 2,500 ballots, less than 1 percent, according to the latest tally. If he wins, Colom would become Mississippi's first Black senator in more than 140 years and would end a Republican winning streak in the state that dates to 1982. His victory would also lift the Democratic Senate majority-elect to 55 seats, with a tight race in Alaska still to be called.
The narrow margin is notable in a state that President Donald Trump won in 2024 by more than 22 points.
State law sets Friday as the deadline to certify results, but thousands of postal and affidavit ballots remain uncounted. Affidavit ballots are provisional ballots cast when a voter's ballot was not immediately accepted because of a discrepancy, such as lacking proper identification on Election Day. The deadline for both affidavit and mail-in ballots was Tuesday.
State officials estimate that between 12,000 and 20,000 affidavit ballots were cast. By Tuesday morning, about 15,500 had been processed, a gap that could be enough to swing the race. Both parties have sent teams of lawyers to Mississippi, raising the possibility of legal challenges.
Colom, a local prosecutor, campaigned in all 82 counties and criticized Hyde-Smith's support for Trump's tariffs, nicknaming her "Cindy High Prices." Hyde-Smith's campaign portrayed Colom as a puppet of the billionaire donor George Soros, whose family has helped fund his campaigns.
Exit polls show that voter backlash against Trump's Republican Party was driven largely by economic hardship that voters blamed on tariffs and the war with Iran. Early exit polls also show that Black voters in Mississippi gave Democrats 91 percent of their votes.
Democrats have won a string of races nationally, including a landslide House majority, and Republicans suffered defeats in conservative states such as Texas, Kansas and Iowa.
