In Mississippi, voters await cliffhanger Senate result with hope and frustration

ByBrandon Drenon

Mississippi

Mississippi's nailbiting wait to find out who won the southern state's Senate race is nearly over a week after the US midterm elections, in a contest that could deliver their first Democratic senator in nearly four decades.

Scott Colom, the Democrat, holds a lead of about 2,500 ballots - less than 1% - over his Republican opponent, the incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, according to the latest tally.

If he wins, Colom would become the Magnolia State's first black senator in over 140 years.

He would also pad the Democratic Senate majority-elect to 55 seats, with a knife-edge race in Alaska still to be called.

The Democrat's razor-thin advantage has defied political gravity in a conservative fortress that President Donald Trump won in 2024 by over 22 points.

State law holds that the deadline to certify results is this Friday, but thousands of postal and affidavit ballots remain uncounted.

Affidavit ballots are ones that were not immediately accepted because of a discrepancy such as lacking proper ID on election day.

In such cases, voters are asked to fill out a provisional ballot and return to resolve the issue. The deadline for both affidavit and mail-in ballots is on Tuesday.

State officials estimate between 12,000 and 20,000 affidavit ballots were cast. As of Tuesday morning, roughly 15,500 had been processed – a difference that could be enough to swing the race.

A Colom victory would wipe away a Republican winning streak in Mississippi that dates back to 1982.

It would add to a string of Democratic successes nationally this election, including a landslide majority in the House of Representatives.

Each party has sent teams of lawyers into Mississippi, setting up the possibility for legal challenges over the result.

As the sun began to set on campus at Jackson State University, a historically black college in Mississippi, students walking through the tree-shaded lawns spoke to the BBC about the race.

Many of them voted this year for the very first time. All of them said they had cast their ballot for Colom.

"I really feel like a change is what we need," 18-year-old Jamyria Dunn told the BBC.

"I've had some amazing days in my life," she continued, "but seeing Mississippi, this state in particular, turn blue, would really bring a light to my heart that people just would not understand."

Dunn's friend, Journey Moore, told the BBC how excited she would feel if Colom won, leaving his mark on African-American history.

"On a scale of one to 10, it's definitely 1,000," she said.

"I'm witnessing it, and I'm a part of it. It's pretty great."

The BBC also visited Brookhaven, in Lincoln County, where Hyde-Smith was born and where Trump won a whopping 72% of votes two years ago.

Party loyalty here was on stark display, with everyone saying either they didn't vote or they voted for Hyde-Smith.

No-one denied the cost of living had gone up, but few here blamed Trump or Hyde-Smith.

"It always seems, no matter who's in office, there's a spike in gas prices. There's always a war. Things are always going up and down," said Travis Powe, a 29-year-old logger who voted for Hyde-Smith.

Keith Scott, a Trump supporter, said both parties had been "attacking Trump at all angles, which was why we voted for him".

Still, Scott said the race in Mississippi was unexpectedly close because the president had not delivered during his second term.

"Trump and his administration did not hold up what they ran on. Bottom line," Scott said.

"And the people like me that voted for him the first two times, that saw the benefits in his first term, we've seen none of it in his second."

Down the street from the railroad tracks cutting through the centre of town was Lee Barry, also a lifelong Republican.

"The price on gas is really high, so that cuts into your pocket," Barry said. "And then you go into the grocery store, prices are high.

"You get your shopping cart, and you got five things in it, and it's 100 bucks before you get out of there.

"So, I think that hurt her a good bit," he said about Hyde-Smith, adding that he also thinks she "should have been out a little bit more" on the campaign trail.

The race was never supposed to be this close.

Colom appeared to be riding a national wave of resentment against Republicans, with the party suffering several defeats this election in typically conservative strongholds like Texas, Kansas and Iowa.

Voter backlash against Trump's Republican party has been driven in large part by economic woes, blamed on his administration's tariffs and war with Iran, according to exit polls.

Colom, a local prosecutor, used the national mood to his advantage, highlighting his opponent's support for Trump's tariffs and giving her the nickname "Cindy High Prices".

The Democrat campaigned aggressively, visiting all of Mississippi's 82 counties.

Hyde-Smith's campaign assailed Colom as a puppet of billionaire liberal donor George Soros, whose family has helped fund the Democrat's political campaigns.

The Republican was criticised by her opponents for a lack of public appearances.

Democrats accused her of insensitivity when she told voters worried about the price of beef that "you have so many proteins to choose from". The Colom team spun the remark into a viral attack ad.

The race also became competitive because of Mississippi's large black population, who are expected to have turned out in record numbers this election.

Early exit polls show the state's black voters, who historically vote Democrat, drifted even further to the left this year, giving Democrats 91% of their votes.