Key facts
- Democrats gained at least 41 House seats and at least 7 Senate seats in the November 2026 midterms, with Mississippi and Alaska uncalled.
- Mississippi is the second-poorest US state, trailing Louisiana, and Jackson has over a quarter of its 141,000 residents in poverty, per the Census Bureau.
- Hinds County voters backed Democrat Scott Colom over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith 80% to 19%.
- Republicans' Hinds County vote share fell more than 7 percentage points from the 2024 election, according to Reuters and USA Today.
- Store manager Maria Lopez said sales at Dash Food Market on a recent Friday were about half their normal level.
Democrats picked up at least 41 seats in the House of Representatives and at least 7 in the Senate in the November 2026 midterm elections, with votes still being counted in a close Mississippi race that could send the state's first Democrat to the US Senate in 44 years, Reuters reported on November 9, 2026. The outcome in Mississippi and Alaska, where the Senate race is also not yet called, will determine whether the Democratic Party extends its election victory.
Mississippi is the second-poorest US state, trailing only Louisiana. In Jackson, over a quarter of its 141,000 residents live in poverty, more than double the US average, according to the Census Bureau. Prices of gas, food and almost everything else became a key issue in the state's midterms.
Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith was accused by Democrats of being insensitive when she told voters worried about the price of beef that they should pick another protein. Democrat Scott Colom made the most of her misstep, suggesting in a campaign ad that the state "pick another senator" instead.
Hinds County, which includes Jackson, has long been one of Mississippi's most reliable Democratic strongholds. In the 2026 election, 80% of voters in the county backed Colom and 19% supported Hyde-Smith. Republicans' share of the vote in Hinds County fell by more than 7 percentage points from the 2024 election that returned Trump to the White House, according to Reuters and USA Today.
At the independent Dash Food Market, which serves many low-income shoppers, manager Maria Lopez, 42, said she keeps the heater off in her car to save gas and finds buying milk at her own store hard. "Instead of getting a big gallon, we'll do half a gallon," she said, adding that she is also struggling to afford health insurance and prescriptions.
Tonya Plunkett, 50, a retired state worker who supports Colom, said a $60 grocery trip that once filled six or seven bags now yields one bag. Nesha Thomas, a fast-food employee and mother of six who voted for Colom, said she spends every dime she gets on her children.
Lopez said sales at Dash are down sharply from a year ago, and on a recent Friday were about half their normal level. She said the store is one of the few grocery stores in the neighborhood. "The community needs the store," she said. "I need my job."