Key facts
- With 96% of votes counted by the morning of November 4, Colom led by fewer than 50 votes.
- About 50,000 ballots remained to be counted, the report said.
- Hyde-Smith led early with about 30% of votes counted before Colom moved ahead.
- Mississippi has no automatic recounts and does not allow candidates to request them, the report said.
Democrat Scott Colom led Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by fewer than 50 votes in Mississippi's US Senate race with 96% of votes counted by the morning of November 4, according to the BBC. About 50,000 ballots remained to be counted. Hyde-Smith led early with about 30% counted before Colom moved ahead as more ballots were processed.
Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the Senate in more than 40 years. Hyde-Smith, the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress, was elected in 2018 and has been endorsed by Donald Trump, who won the state by more than 22 points in 2024, the report said. A Colom win would make him the first black US senator elected in Mississippi since 1875.
The race ran alongside Democratic victories in both chambers of Congress, including Senate seats in South Carolina, Texas and Kansas, states the report said had not elected Democratic senators in decades. The Democratic Party sent extra funding to Mississippi in recent weeks after seeing an unexpected chance to flip the seat, according to the report.
Mississippi has no automatic recounts for close races and does not allow candidates to request them. Mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within five days are counted, so the result could take longer to settle.
Colom, a district attorney, campaigned on his Christian faith and economic concerns and criticized Trump's policies, including the war in Iran and the cost of living, the report said. Trump campaigned with Hyde-Smith last month.
Charles Taylor, director of the NAACP's Mississippi branch, told the BBC that black voter participation rose sharply. "We saw long lines in person yesterday," Taylor said. Mississippi has the largest share of African American residents of any US state, at nearly 40%, the report said.