Democrat Scott Colom wins Mississippi Senate race in surprise victory for party

Democrat Scott Colom has won the US Senate race in Mississippi, delivering a shock victory for the party in a deeply conservative state that has elected Republicans for decades.

Colom's victory makes him the first black person from Mississippi to be elected to the US Senate in more than 140 years.

Only a few thousand votes separated Colom from his Republican opponent, the incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.

The margin was so close that the race could not be called until more than a week after election day, as local officials counted every single ballot that had arrived before the deadline.

The result means the Democratic majority in the Senate is now 55 seats, with a knife-edge race in Alaska still to be called.

The Mississippi contest was never expected to be this close, with Hyde-Smith running for re-election in a state that President Donald Trump won in the 2024 election by more than 22 points.

But Democrats have scored a series of major wins in these midterm elections as the party won control of both the House and the Senate.

It has won Senate seats in numerous Republican strongholds, including Texas, South Carolina and Kansas.

Polls suggest this was due in large part to voter frustrations with the economy and the Iran war under President Trump.