Mississippi Senate: Scott Colom leads Hyde-Smith by more than 3,000 votes

Democratic nominee Scott Colom extended his lead over incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Mississippi Senate election by more than 3,000 votes on Wednesday morning.

Colom's lead grew to 3,041 as Hinds County commissioners were set to meet to declare how many ballots had been accepted or rejected in the county.

With an estimated 98% of the votes in, Colom led Hyde-Smith 49.11% to 48.79%. Independent candidate Ty Pinkins had 2.1% of the vote.

Hinds County, which is the second-most populous county in Mississippi, is a majority Black county that encompasses the state's capital, Jackson. If Colom is elected, he would be the first Black senator from Mississippi since the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War.

In 2024, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris defeated President Donald Trump by 46 percentage points in Hinds County. As of Wednesday morning, Colom was winning 80% of the vote in the county, with just 19% for Hyde-Smith.

Mississippi, which has not elected a Democratic senator since the segregationist John Stennis in 1982, was on the radar of few, if any, political analysts as a possible pickup for Democrats.

Tuesday was the deadline for resolving affidavit or provisional ballots, which are cast by voters whose eligibility is disputed or unclear on Election Day. It is also the deadline for the receipt of mail-in absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day, Nov. 3.

Mississippi is one of just two states whose Senate election has not been called. Alaska is the other.

Democrats so far have flipped seven Senate seats held by Republicans going into the election. That gives Democrats a new majority in the Senate of at least 54 seats in the 100-member chamber come January.

Alaska before Election Day was viewed as possibly key to the question of whether Republicans would retain their narrow majority in the Senate.

In Alaska, Democratic nominee Mary Peltola's lead extended to 4,250 votes over incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, with 84% of the total votes counted, a margin of 1.8 percentage points.

Peltola has 49% of the total vote. If neither she nor Sullivan gets more than 50% of the total vote, the race will go to a ranked-choice round, in which the two other candidates, Gerald Heikes and another candidate named Dan Sullivan, will be eliminated, and the second choices of voters who made them their first choice will be allocated between Peltola and the incumbent.