Mississippi Senate Race Too Close to Call as Democrat Colom Leads Sen. Hyde-Smith by 43 Votes

Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race remained too close to call early Wednesday, with Democrat Scott Colom holding a lead of just 43 votes over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Colom had 462,821 votes to Hyde-Smith’s 462,778 shortly before 4 a.m. Eastern, HuffPost reported. The Associated Press had not declared a winner.

As of NBC News’ 4:50 a.m. ET update, about 95.6% of the expected vote was in, with an estimated 44,000 votes remaining. Each candidate had 48.9%, and NBC rated the race too close to call.

NBC estimated Hyde-Smith would need about 49% of the remaining vote to catch Colom. Independent Ty Pinkins drew about 2%. Mississippi has no runoff in federal general elections, so a plurality wins.

A Colom win would be an eighth Democratic Senate flip of the night. Democrats had already secured a Senate majority, according to the AP, so the outcome will affect the size of that majority rather than control.

Both Campaigns Say the Count Favors Them

The Colom campaign estimated 10,000 to 15,000 affidavit ballots were still outstanding, Mississippi Today reported. Hyde-Smith’s campaign said its internal numbers showed she would win.

Hyde-Smith addressed supporters in Flowood shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday, before Colom’s late surge. “This is a much longer night than we thought it would be,” she said. “But we’re in a good lead right now.”

“I’ll tell you the Democrats got out and worked, they really got out and worked, and a lot of them showed up today. But not enough of them,” Hyde-Smith said. “I assure you I will continue to be your U.S. senator.”

Colom, a Democratic district attorney in north Mississippi, told supporters in Jackson that the results were “all trending in our direction.” He pledged, “We are going to fight to protect every vote.”

Mississippi has no automatic recount law, though a recount can be requested from a judge, HuffPost reported. Affidavit ballots, the state’s version of provisional ballots, must be verified before they count.

The Mississippi Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the DeSoto County circuit clerk after polls closed. It claimed some precincts opened late and some ran out of ballots, and asked that certain precincts stay open an extra hour.

As of Tuesday night, a judge had not been assigned to the case, Mississippi Today reported. State GOP Chairman Mike Hurst predicted Hyde-Smith would prevail. “At the end of the night, though, we are a Republican state,” he said.

Most forecasters had rated the seat safely Republican. Trump carried Mississippi by 24 points in 2024, a gap former GOP Gov. Haley Barbour noted at Hyde-Smith’s party. “He isn’t winning by 24 points today,” Barbour said.

Hyde-Smith is seeking a second full term. She was appointed in 2018 and won a special election that year before winning a full term in 2020.

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