Cindy Hyde-Smith Told Mississippi It Had Other Options. Mississippi Picked One.

JACKSON, Miss. — Democrat Scott Colom has won Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race, the Associated Press projected Wednesday. He defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

The AP called it just before 6 p.m. Eastern. Colom led by 4,669 votes out of 962,237 counted. That is half a percentage point. NPR called it the closest Senate race in the country.

Hyde-Smith has called Colom to concede and congratulate him, a spokesman confirmed to the AP.

The menu

Hyde-Smith is a cattle rancher and a former state agriculture commissioner. Earlier this year she was asked about high beef prices. “You have so many other proteins to choose from,” she said, NPR reported.

Colom turned that into an ad. In it, voters decide it is time to “pick another senator,” NPR reported. He also drove a “pick your protein” taco truck and handed out free tacos, the Guardian reported.

The senator was right. Mississippi had other options. It studied the menu for eight days and ordered one.

The count

On election night the margin was 43 votes. That was after the last update came in from Pike County at 3:03 a.m., the AP reported.

Then came eight days of absentee ballots and affidavit ballots. An affidavit ballot is what Mississippi calls a provisional ballot. The lead grew one county at a time.

The update that brought the call came from Jackson County. It added 2,173 votes. Hyde-Smith needed to win final updates in GOP-leaning counties like this one. Colom won the update by just over a point, the AP reported.

Jackson County is on the Gulf Coast. The city of Jackson is not in it. The city of Jackson is in Hinds County. Mississippi has never explained this to visitors and does not intend to start.

The recount

Mississippi does not have a recount law. Nobody gets one by asking.

A recount happens only if a court orders one, after a party or campaign sues a county or its election commission, the Guardian reported. Candidates cannot request one, the secretary of state’s office told ABC News.

The AP estimated fewer than 12,000 votes remain for county officials to review before Friday’s deadline. Colom’s lead is 4,669. This desk did the math twice. It came out the same both times.

The history

Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982. It has not sent a Black senator to Washington since Reconstruction, NPR reported.

President Trump carried the state by 23 points in 2024. The Cook Political Report rated the race Likely Republican going into election night, NPR reported.

Colom told NPR earlier this month that national Democrats had ignored the state. “The reality is, Mississippi has never been a lost cause, we’ve been a betrayed cause,” he said.

The view from the dock

“Forty years I’ve been telling people there’s other proteins,” said Earl Pettaway, a Pascagoula shrimper this newspaper made up this afternoon. “Then a senator finally said it out loud. Now she’s out of a job.”

Pettaway said he voted in Jackson County. He has never been to Jackson. He considers the matter settled.