Overview
- The Associated Press and other outlets projected Colom the winner on Wednesday after counties completed days of processing absentee mail ballots and provisional “affidavit” ballots, and Sen. Cindy Hyde‑Smith conceded.
- Colom led by roughly 4,600 votes, about 0.5 percent of more than 960,000 ballots cast, a margin built mainly on ballots counted after Election Day.
- The result completes one of the last outstanding midterm races and raises the Democratic Senate total to at least 55 seats with only Alaska’s contest still unresolved.
- Colom ran on cost‑of‑living and health care themes, used Hyde‑Smith’s ‘‘pick another protein’’ beef remark in a viral ad, drew high‑profile Democratic surrogates and late outside spending, and had earlier seen his 2022 judicial nomination blocked by Hyde‑Smith under the Senate blue‑slip tradition.
- For Mississippi voters the outcome alters longstanding federal representation and for Washington it reshapes oversight and legislative math; Colom will be sworn in in January and observers will watch whether the Alaska race further changes the Senate balance.