Democrat Scott Colom becomes the first Black senator in Mississippi in more than a century

WashingtonMississippi has finally fallen too and turned blue. For the first time in over 100 years, the southern state has a Black senator in the federal Congress again: Democrat Scott Colom. The count of the race had dragged on for more than a week after election night ended with Colom leading the count by less than 100 votes over Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith. It was necessary to wait until all the votes were counted to be able to declare the winner.

Colom also becomes the first Democratic senator that Mississippi has had in almost 40 years. With his seat, the Democrats now total 55 seats in the upper chamber, and the seat in Alaska, where the count continues, is still in dispute. Colom's victory was by the slimmest of margins: 49.2% against the Republican's 48.7%. In absolute terms: 473,336 votes against 468,667, a difference of less than 5,000 votes.

His victory gives even more momentum to the tsunami that has shaken Trump, managing to turn another Republican bastion blue after Texas, Kansas, and South Carolina.

The new senator-elect is a 43-year-old prosecutor, the son of a well-known Republican lawyer in Mississippi. Colom went viral for his campaign, in which he pointed out the rising price of meat. In response to his rival's proposal, who had suggested that people "opt for another protein" than meat, he replied that, instead of "opting for another protein," it was better to "opt for another senator."

Colom's victory is also especially significant because he managed to win with a campaign focused on the cost of living, but without hiding where he stands on identity struggles.

Colom is a staunch defender of the rights of trans people. In fact, in 2022, then-President Joe Biden nominated him for the position of federal judge, but Senator Hyde-Smith blocked him because she considered him too far left for supporting the rights of trans people in the U.S. A year earlier, Mississippi had passed a law that prohibited the participation of trans athletes in school and university sports. Colom was among the signatories of a letter that rejected "efforts to criminalize trans people and gender-affirming medical care in the country".