Democrat Scott Colom has won the US Senate race in Mississippi, becoming the first Black senator elected from the southern US state in more than 140 years, US networks projected on Wednesday.
Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, defeated Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in what was perhaps the most remarkable seat flip of a midterm election where Democrats won back the majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
CNN, NBC and CBS called the race on Wednesday, eight days after election night, with Colom leading Hyde-Smith by 49.2 per cent to 48.7 per cent, a margin of 4,585 votes with about 99 per cent of the vote counted.
Addressing a jubilant crowd of supporters in Jackson on Wednesday night, Colom stated that Mississippi prayers have often changed history, telling the audience that God wanted them to get it the Mississippi way.
He will also be the first Democratic senator from Mississippi in nearly 40 years, while Hyde-Smith, who has held the seat since 2018, conceded in a video posted on X.
The result in the solidly Republican state deepens the setback for US President Donald Trump, as voters across the country turned away from his Republican Party even in states that had not sent a Democrat to Washington in decades.
Following the outcome, Democrats will hold 55 seats in the 100-member Senate, Republicans will hold 44, and one race in Alaska has yet to be called, with Democrats flipping a total of eight Republican-held Senate seats.
Control of both chambers of Congress gives Democrats the power to block legislation, investigate the administration, and stop Trump’s appointments, leaving the 80-year-old president as a lame duck for the final two years of his term.
The race went down to the wire amid a Democratic wave driven by mounting anger over Trump’s hardline immigration policy, the war in Iran, and the rising cost of living.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer wrote on X that Blue Mississippi is here, adding that Scott Colom was the only person who could have gotten it done.
The first Black senator ever elected in the United States, Hiram Revels, was also from Mississippi and served during the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War, a legacy Colom referenced during his speech.
Source: Euronews. Read the original report ↗