Democrat Scott Colom has won the U.S. Senate race in Mississippi, delivering an unexpected victory for his party in a deeply conservative state that had not elected a Democrat to the Senate in decades.
Colom’s victory makes him the first Black person from Mississippi elected to the U.S. 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 narrow that the race could not be called until more than a week after Election Day, as officials counted every ballot received before the deadline.
The result means the Democratic majority in the Senate now holds 55 seats, while a razor-thin race in Alaska remained to be called.
The Mississippi contest was never expected to be that close. Hyde-Smith was 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 largely to voter frustrations with the economy and the Iran war under President Trump.
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