While Democrats have secured control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections, the size of the party’s majority in the Senate has not yet been finalized. Democrats have won at least 54 Senate seats, but the final tally won’t be known until the races in Mississippi and Alaska are called. In Mississippi, the Democratic challenger is enjoying an incredibly thin margin over the Republican incumbent in a race which appears to be coming down to the last few thousand ballots left to be counted.
Extremely close race comes down to provisional ballots
WLBT 3 reported that, as of 3 a.m. Wednesday, Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi was trailing Democratic challenger Scott Colom by a margin of only 43 votes out of more than 925,000 votes cast in the election. With such a thin margin separating the top two candidates, the race was unlikely to be called for either Colom or Hyde-Smith until the remaining few thousand ballots are counted. If he wins, Colom would be Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction and the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state since 1982.
Despite being behind in the count so far, Hyde-Smith declared victory Tuesday night; when asked about the senator’s declaration, Colom responded, “bless her heart.” The Democrat expressed confidence that he would win, and that his victory would hold up to any challenges. “We have an army of lawyers. We have local lawyers; we have everybody involved to make sure the process goes according to the law,” Colom said. Looking ahead, Colom pledged “to serve with honesty, transparency. I never planned to be just another Democratic senator. I planned to be Mississippi’s Democratic senator.” He also said he would “focus on getting costs down, because the tariffs are not working,” as well as finding a way to “get out of the war in Iran as soon as possible.” He added that he would work “to save our healthcare and hospitals. I’m gonna do what I said.”
With both sides expressing confidence in their eventual victory, the ultimate outcome of the race is likely to come down to approximately 10,000-15,000 provisional ballots that have yet to be counted. Also known as “affidavit ballots,” these are votes that were cast by individuals whose names were not found on local voting rolls. These ballots are set aside but must be counted if the voter who cast them is found to have been previously listed on the voter rolls and provides ID within five days of casting the provisional ballot; the precinct poll manager must also sign the affidavit ballot envelope for the ballot to count. The unusually high number of provisional ballots cast in this year’s Senate election may be attributed to Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson flagging over 200,000 voter registrations as “inactive” before the election. Colom is committed to making sure that all provisional ballots are counted, along with mail-in ballots that are allowed to arrive up to five days after the election as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. While Mississippi does not have a procedure for an official recount, candidates are allowed to introduce challenges to ballots, potentially setting up a legal fight over the final count. “We will protect the process of this election. We will protect the integrity of this election,” Colom told his supporters, preparing for a potential legal fight.
Missteps by Hyde-Smith, decisions by other Democrats contribute to close race
While the final outcome of the Mississippi election hangs in the balance, the fact that a Democrat could likely win in the deep red state is a remarkable reality. Experts attribute the unexpectedly competitive race to a variety of factors, including general dissatisfaction with President Trump and the Republican Party. Pundits also point to the campaign run by Hyde-Smith, who has a history of making racist or otherwise offensive comments. In this race, when asked about the rising price of beef, the senator answered, “You know you have so many proteins to choose from,” which inspired a devastating attack ad from Colom that featured Mississippians responding incredulously to the “pick another protein” response.
Meanwhile, even though Colom is in the lead, some of his supporters are calling out decisions made by others that may have disadvantaged the Democrat. As Blavity previously reported, Colom was one of the southern candidates for whom Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) extended personal support in the final weeks of the campaign while urging the Democratic Party to do more for them as well. While Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC, contributed a $1.2 million ad campaign for Colom in the final weeks of the campaign, some of his supporters were frustrated that this support did not arrive earlier. Others have criticized Ty Pinkins, another Black Mississippi Democrat who chose to run as an independent and garnered nearly 20,000 votes in the race, significantly more than the margin separating Colom and Hyde-Smith.
In a situation in which every remaining vote counts, it may be days before the final results are announced. While some of the attention surrounding the race has turned to second-guessing of the actions of other Democrats and their impact on the Mississippi Senate election, Colom’s main focus is on making sure all votes are counted in the race.