40% Black Voters in Mississippi Senate Race Draw Late Cash

Mississippi has the highest share of Black voters in the country, close to 40%, a figure drawing late national attention to a Senate race both parties ignored for most of the cycle. President Trump carried the state by 23 points in 2024, and the last Democrat to win a Mississippi Senate seat did so in the early 1980s.

Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee and a district attorney, has campaigned on the argument that his party wrote off the state. "The reality is, Mississippi has never been a lost cause, we've been a betrayed cause," he told NPR. "They spent hundreds of millions of dollars in other states. They spent almost nothing in Mississippi." He faces incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, who blocked his nomination to a federal judgeship during the Biden administration.

The race has accelerated in the final weeks. Democrats have spent about $5 million on Mississippi advertising this month, compared with $3.2 million from Republicans, according to figures in the source material. The Hyde-Smith campaign alone put more than $1.3 million into an ad titled "Most Radical," which says, "Meet the most radical Senate candidate in our lifetime, Scott Colom." The ad adds, "As DA, violent crime doubled on his watch."

About 1,000 people attended a rally for Colom at his hometown high school gym, where he appeared with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris told the crowd, "We're 12 days out from an election. And it's time to turn that anger into action." A few days later, roughly 100 miles away in Corinth, President Trump joined Hyde-Smith at a rally aimed at turnout. Hyde-Smith said, "Endorsements don't win elections, votes win elections."

Trump told the crowd he came to Mississippi because Hyde-Smith was performing well. "Sometimes when you think somebody's doing so well, nobody votes," he said. "That's why I'm here, just get out and vote."

Voting concludes Nov. 3. Hyde-Smith's campaign manager, Jake Monssen, said, "We are confident that Mississippians will once again send Cindy Hyde-Smith to the U.S. Senate." Colom said of the incumbent, "It's very clear the voters of Mississippi want to fire her."