Two Senate races remain too close to call Wednesday as votes continued to be counted in Alaska and Mississippi, where Democrats are mounting challenges that could further reshape the balance of power in the upper chamber.
Democrats scored sweeping victories in Tuesday’s 2026 midterm elections, capturing control of both the House and Senate, but the outcomes in Alaska and Mississippi remain uncertain, with both races separated by just hundreds of votes.
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In Mississippi, Democratic challenger Scott Colom holds a razor-thin lead over Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), putting one of the nation’s most reliably Republican states unexpectedly in play.
According to the Associated Press, Colom had received 462,821 votes, or 48.9%, compared with Hyde-Smith’s 462,778 votes, also 48.9%, as of Wednesday morning.
Colom, a local prosecutor, could become Mississippi’s first black senator since the Reconstruction era if elected. Hyde-Smith, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, is seeking her second full Senate term. She was first appointed to the seat before winning a 2018 special election.
The race attracted growing national attention in the final weeks of the campaign as Democrats identified Hyde-Smith as a potentially vulnerable Republican incumbent, despite Mississippi’s strong GOP lean. The state has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982, when former Sen. John Stennis won his final term.
In Alaska, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) is locked in a close contest with former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola as he seeks a third term. With approximately 74% of the vote counted, Peltola had received 102,701 votes, or 48.2%, compared with Sullivan’s 102,075 votes, or 47.9%, according to the Associated Press. Two additional candidates, including a man named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., have also received votes.
The Alaska race has drawn particular scrutiny over allegations that Democratic operatives helped recruit the second Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher, to enter the contest in an effort to siphon votes away from the Republican incumbent.
The New York Times dropped a bombshell report days before the election alleging Peltola’s campaign was involved in efforts to recruit the candidate. The controversy prompted the Justice Department to launch civil and criminal investigations, sending more than 20 letters seeking information and preservation of documents, including to prominent Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee officials.
A federal judge dismissed an initial Justice Department effort to intervene in the matter or delay the election results.
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Alaska uses ranked choice voting in general elections. Because neither Peltola nor Sullivan has secured more than 50% of the first-choice vote, the race could advance to an additional round of counting if the final results remain below that threshold.
The Associated Press reported early Wednesday that Peltola initially held a significant lead before Sullivan overtook her as additional ballots were counted. More votes must be tallied before election officials can determine whether the race will proceed to ranked choice tabulation.