Who won Mississippi’s midterm Senate race? We may not know for a while

This story will be updated.

Democrat Scott Colom was within striking distance Wednesday of pulling off an historic upset in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race between him and Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, but the race remained too close to call.

As Mississippians woke up Wednesday morning and the nation turned its attention to the Magnolia State, a razor-thin margin separated Colom, a Democratic district attorney in north Mississippi, and Hyde-Smith. As of 9 a.m., Colom led by less than 100 votes in incomplete and unofficial results.

A legal fight is likely. Ballots remained uncounted in Hinds County, the most populous area of the state and a Democratic stronghold and counties along the Coast where Hyde-Smith has maintained an edge. Thousands of affidavit and mail-in ballots also remain to be counted.

The midterm race saw a massive turnout, with nearly 1 million people voting, rivaling presidential election turnout in Mississippi.

Colom was set to address reporters on Wednesday morning, and Hyde-Smith’s campaign did not immediately respond to inquiries after the senator almost declared victory on Tuesday evening. 

It appeared many groups are gearing up for a fight.

On Tuesday night, the state Democratic Party filed a court challenge claiming several precincts in DeSoto County had problems, including delayed openings, “extraordinary waiting periods” and a shortage of regular ballots and affidavit ballots.

LIVE: 2026 Mississippi election results

Kelcy Higgins, a Mississippi-based political operative and community organizer and director of the Magnolia Project, called for volunteers to help with Election Day fallout.

“The work of the 2026 election is not over,” Higgins said. “Affidavit ballots remain to be reviewed and counted across Mississippi’s precincts, and we must ensure that every eligible vote is properly counted. Mississippi needs election protection volunteers now to help protect the process and make sure every eligible vote is counted and no voter’s voice is left out.”

Colom, a district attorney in northern Mississippi, would be the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate since John Stennis in 1982. He would be the first Black person elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi since Reconstruction, when the state Legislature elected Hiram Revels in 1870 and Blanche Bruce in 1875.

Hyde-Smith is the first woman to be elected to federal office in Mississippi.

Most forecasters had rated the Mississippi Senate race as safely Republican. But on the issues defining the midterms in Mississippi and beyond, voters left little doubt it would be a referendum on President Donald Trump — on soaring consumer prices exacerbated by tariffs and his war with Iran.

Colom has campaigned hard, crisscrossing the state and receiving help from the national party.

Dan Pffeifer, a political commentator and former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, said Colom “has run a campaign that is a model for Dems trying to flip very red states.”

Hyde-Smith, a Brookhaven cattle farmer, was first appointed to the Senate in 2018 to replace longtime Sen. Thad Cochran. She won two races against former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy and early on appeared confident she would gain a third victory, in part from the continued endorsement of Trump. 

Hyde-Smith’s main campaign message was to label Colom an extremist, and the “most radical Senate candidate of our lifetime.” She attempted to label him as a puppet of far-left national Democrats, with a spokesman calling him a stooge of Schumer and to billionaire donor George Soros.