Mississippi hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1982, but what was long considered an untouchable state, punctuated by President Donald Trump’s 24-point victory two years ago, is now raising eyebrows as a possibly competitive seat in the midterm elections.
Trump will rally voters Monday in the Magnolia State to reelect Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) just as Democrats and election watchers are paying closer attention to what was once an unthinkable seat to flip for Democrat Scott Colom.
The race still leans in Hyde-Smith’s favor as “likely Republican” and is a long shot for Colom, a local district attorney. But it’s the latest instance of Democrats putting GOP incumbents on their heels in the closing days of the midterm elections for historically red states such as South Carolina, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas.
Democrats have outspent Republicans on the Mississippi airwaves with roughly $7.5 million to the GOP’s less than $4.9 million, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. Republicans are taking notice of Democrats’ last-minute cash infusion, including $1.2 million from a group aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). The GOP counterpart, Senate Leadership Fund, responded with its own ad buy of more than $1 million.
Colom took the unusual step to challenge the president to a debate and accused Hyde-Smith, who is seeking a second full term, of running “scared, and that’s why she’s sending Donald Trump down here.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris preempted Trump’s visit with one of her own on Thursday to stump for Colom in his hometown of Columbus as part of her broader midterm blitz, a move that drew further scrutiny to the contest. The Senate GOP’s campaign arm reacted by calling Colom a “Chuck Schumer-backed, George Soros-funded, Transgender Defender so out of touch with Mississippi that he is campaigning with Kamala Harris.”
“When people asked me, they said, ‘You gonna bring the former vice president to Columbus, Mississippi? Why would you do that?’” Colom told rallygoers. “You know what I told them? ‘Why not? Why not?’ Because this is the place that taught me the values that matter.”
Democrats have their best opportunities in generations to flip such GOP strongholds thanks to incumbent headwinds, not only because Republicans control Washington but also because of voter anxieties over issues such as affordability and the Iran war, as well as their disapproval of Trump. An upset from Colom would mark the first time since 1982 a Democrat was elected to the Senate in Mississippi. He would also be the first black Mississippi senator to be elected since 1869, during the Reconstruction era following the Civil War.
In a nod to Colom’s possible history-making campaign, as well as her own historic achievement when she was elected to the Senate in 2016, Harris implored voters to imagine the influence he could bring to the upper chamber that has just five other black members.
“I was only the second black woman elected to the U.S. Senate in history. A Scott Colom as senator from Mississippi will be so powerful,” Harris said. “I’ve been in those rooms where there’s no cameras. It’s senators talking to each other, making big decisions about things like Medicaid, Medicare, housing, where we’re putting our resources in terms of education. When you have a voice like his in that room, just think about the impact that’s going to have on the decisions coming out of that room.”
But if Democrats fail to seize on the momentum this cycle for any of those seats — Mississippi, Kansas, South Carolina, Nebraska, and Texas — they will likely remain out of reach for the foreseeable future.
There is minimal public polling to determine just how close Mississippi might be. One of the most recent surveys, from August by a Colom-aligned group, showed Hyde-Smith leading Colom by 6 points. The state is among the contests where Democrats are grappling with fallout from fake polling, including fabricated survey results touted by Colom that showed him essentially tied. He was supposedly 4 points behind Hyde-Smith but within the 4.3-point margin of error in the now-retracted poll.
The Colom campaign and Senate Democrats’ election arm denied making any spending decisions based on the fake figures.
Hyde-Smith used Harris’s visit to accuse Colom of being “completely beholden to the far left and the failed policies of the Biden-Harris administration, which led to record-high inflation and a border crisis that allowed millions of illegal aliens, criminals, and gang members to flood into our country.” Colom fired back at his rally that she was “giving away” Mississippi’s voice in Congress “to her MAGA daddy.”
DEMOCRATS SEND $1.2 MILLION TO BOOST MISSISSIPPI SENATE RACE
In similar fashion to other Democrats across the map, Colom welcomed Trump’s impending trip to stump for his Republican rival and reupped his debate challenge to the president.
“We welcome him because I think it’s time to debate! I want to debate him!” he yelled to the crowd. “Cindy Hyde-Smith won’t debate, so maybe he will, ’cause we got some questions!”
James A. Downs contributed to this report.