Nov 12, 2026 · 42 min
Mississippi upset tests the South’s political map
Scott Colom’s Mississippi Senate upset changes the political playbook in the South
Scott Colom’s victory over Cindy Hyde-Smith suggests sustained organizing can make supposedly unwinnable Southern races competitive.
- 1Grassroots organizers and students built a multiracial coalition that carried Colom across Mississippi.
- 2The result connects Mississippi’s civil-rights history with a new challenge to fixed red-state assumptions.
- 3Raphael Warnock argues Democrats must keep investing in Southern communities rather than retreat after close losses.
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Raphael Warnock explains why he backed Scott Colom when donors dismissed the Mississippi race, then connects the upset to persistent organizing.
The brief
Scott Colom’s upset over Cindy Hyde-Smith challenges the idea that Southern states are politically settled, with Jen Psaki and Simone Sanders Townsend arguing that competition can strengthen democracy.
The victory carries unusual historical weight: Colom would become Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction, at a state shaped by Jim Crow, Freedom Summer, voting-rights struggles, and setbacks.
At Tougaloo College, Ali Velshi describes a celebration powered by students and organizers, while the campaign’s multiracial coalition shows how sustained local work can overcome dismissive national assumptions.
Raphael Warnock says he backed Colom when donors treated the race as laughable, drawing a direct line from Georgia’s organizing to Mississippi’s breakthrough and the need for continued investment.
Chris Hayes adds a data-driven explanation: broader trends mattered, but Colom’s candidate quality, grassroots campaign, and strength in key counties made the upset possible.
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