Democrat Scott Colom's lead over Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has expanded further in Mississippi's uncalled U.S. Senate race, as opportunities for the incumbent to make up lost ground continue to slip away.
As of Friday afternoon at 5 p.m., Colom led Hyde-Smith by 2,574 votes out of more than 950,000 cast statewide, the Associated Press reported. The lead had stood at 1,138 votes on Wednesday, when Colom had 464,926 votes to Hyde-Smith's 463,788, and it grew again with a later drop of returns from several counties.
Thousands of votes are still to be counted, but most are expected to be affidavit ballots that could take counties until late next week to finish processing. About 3,600 mail ballots postmarked by Election Day can still arrive until November 10, according to Secretary of State Michael Watson, and the Colom campaign estimates between 10,000 and 15,000 affidavit ballots remain outstanding statewide.
Observers expect many of the remaining affidavit votes to come from Hinds County, a majority-Black county where Colom leads the overall total by 79 percent to 19 percent. Colom has consistently outperformed his overall margins in affidavit ballots so far, helping him pull further away in the tally.
Mississippi has no formal recount. After counties certify their results by November 13, a candidate can examine ballot boxes and file a challenge in court. The Associated Press has not called the race.
If Colom's lead holds, he would be the first Democrat elected to represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate since 1982, and the first Black U.S. senator from Mississippi since Blanche Bruce, whose term ended in 1881. Colom, 43, is a district attorney for four counties in northeast Mississippi. Hyde-Smith, 67, blocked his appointment as a federal judge in 2023.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called Colom and is sending resources, legal and otherwise, to Mississippi through the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to help with the remaining vote count. Governor Tate Reeves said he remained confident Hyde-Smith would win. The Alaska Senate race is the only other contest where votes are still being counted, with Democrat Mary Peltola holding a lead over Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan.
