In an unexpected development just days after the election, CNN has declared Democrat Scott Colom the winner of Mississippi’s U.S. Senate contest. This result represents a significant upset in the midterm elections of 2026, where Democrats have achieved historic victories.
The network’s Decision Desk made its announcement in the late afternoon after additional ballots from crucial counties widened Colom’s lead over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith. With about 98.6 to 99 percent of ballots counted, Colom garnered 49.2 percent, while Hyde-Smith received 48.7 percent, yielding a margin of approximately 4,500 to 4,700 votes.
Independent candidate Ty Pinkins contributed 2.1 percent to the total vote count.
The election remained unresolved for several days due to Mississippi’s methods for handling affidavit ballots—provisional ballots that are cast when a voter’s eligibility or ID cannot be verified on Election Day—as well as outstanding absentee ballots. Counties were tasked with processing postmarked mail ballots and addressing ID verification on provisional ballots. With the addition of these ballots, Colom’s slim lead, which fluctuated at a few thousand votes for the majority of the period, steadily increased.
POLL: Will America Regret Giving The Democrats Power?
Scott Colom will defeat Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in a major upset to become the first Democrat that voters in deep-red Mississippi have elected to the chamber in more than four decades, CNN projects. https://t.co/LIrSavsJ01 pic.twitter.com/DLvYVX3MNB
— CNN (@CNN) November 11, 2026
CNN’s projection followed updates that included results from Hinds County, a region leaning Democratic, and subsequent counts from other counties.
CNN stood out as the first major news organization to declare Colom the winner, doing so around 5:05 p.m. Eastern time. The Associated Press made their call shortly before 6 p.m. Eastern after updates from Jackson County showing more than 2,100 votes placed Colom ahead by approximately 4,669 votes of over 962,000 total counted. Other prominent election forecasters followed suit soon afterward.
While official certification timelines remain later, with counties needing to finalize results by November 13, and statewide certification due December 3, it is anticipated that the remaining uncounted ballots—estimated to be fewer than 12,000—would not be enough to alter the race’s outcome, based on previous trends.
Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney from northern Mississippi, will be the first Democrat to secure a Senate seat from the state since John Stennis in 1982 and the first Black individual to hold statewide office in Mississippi since the Reconstruction era. Hyde-Smith’s campaign confirmed her concession to Colom on Wednesday evening.
In her last full term won in 2020, Hyde-Smith triumphed by about 10 percentage points, defeating Democrat Mike Espy with 54.1 percent to 44.1 percent, a spread of roughly 130,820 votes from over 1.3 million cast. It had been over four decades since Mississippi elected a Democratic senator, and President Donald Trump carried the state by more than 22 points in the 2024 election.
This outcome elevates the Democratic caucus to 55 seats in the Senate, which will convene in January 2027, pending results from the uncalled Alaska race where Democrat Mary Peltola has claimed victory, currently holding a narrow edge over incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK).
