Democrat Scott Colom pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the midterm elections when he defeated Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent Republican senator, to become the first Black senator in Mississippi elected since 1875, after more than a week of vote counting in one of the country’s most reliably red states.
asserted
he → pull → states
Colom opened up a narrow lead over Hyde-Smith late on election night.
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Colom → open → night
His lead widened as election officials counted provisional ballots.
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officials → widen → ballots
Hyde-Smith was not able to close the gap.
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Smith → close → gap
Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982.
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Mississippi → elect → 1982
It’s been much longer – not since 1875 – that the state sent a Black senator to Washington.
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state → send → Washington
With Colom’s election, Mississippi, the first state to send Black lawmakers to Congress, has sent more Black people to the Senate than any other state besides Illinois.
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Mississippi → send → Illinois
Blanche K Bruce, the last Black man elected to the Senate from Mississippi, was born into slavery; John C Stennis, the last Democrat to be sent from Mississippi, was, for most of his career, a staunch segregationist.
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Stennis → elect → career
Colom’s election capped a national wave of anger at Donald Trump’s administration, sweeping away Republicans in places where Democrats hadn’t been competitive in decades.
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Democrats → cap → decades
Across the south, voters were further motivated by the president’s attempt to drastically redraw Black majority districts, attempting to dilute the largely Democratic voting blocs.
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voters → motivate → blocs
Colom has a track record of success in the state.
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Colom → have → state
In 2015, Colom unseated a nearly 30-year incumbent when he was elected the first Black district attorney for the 16th circuit.
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he → unseat → circuit
As district attorney, he had a 94% success rate for convictions.
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he → have → convictions
He’s a seventh-generation Mississippian, whose father was a longtime Republican who campaigned for Ronald Reagan and was friendly with Thad Cochran, a longtime state politician.
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who → ’ → Cochran
A string of Democratic stars visited the state late in the race as the polls showed a tightening race – Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris and Bill Clinton all made appearances for Colom.
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Booker → visit → Colom
Trump rallied for Hyde-Smith last month.
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Trump → rally → Smith
Joe Biden nominated Colom to be a federal judge in the northern district of Mississippi.
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Biden → nominate → Mississippi
With support from both Republicans and Democrats, he appeared to be on track to a lifetime appointment on the federal bench, when Hyde-Smith blocked him from having a confirmation hearing.
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Smith → appear → hearing
On election day, Hyde-Smith joked about the incident, saying: “I blocked Scott Colom from being a federal judge, and you blocked him from being a US Senator.”
In the days after the election, Colom continued a dizzying campaign, visiting Millsaps College, his alma mater, and local colleges Jackson State University and Tougaloo College.
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Colom → joke → College
With national and international cameras on him, Colom stopped by small, local businesses, including Marshall’s Music and Book Store and OffBeat, both of which are Black-owned, and Brent’s Drugs, a Jackson classic.
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both → stop → which
Colom campaigned on the promise that “Mississippi matters”.
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Mississippi → campaign → promise
He told voters that he would represent all Mississippians.
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he → tell → Mississippians
A week before the election, he attended Trump’s rally for Hyde-Smith with the goal of engaging the president’s supporters and listening to them talk about their economic concerns – high gas prices, grocery bills and health insurance.
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them → attend → concerns
He posed for photos with some rally-goers, and said the face-to-face conversations helped him convert the unlikeliest of voters to his campaign.
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him → pose → campaign
He drew national attention for a viral ad that featured Hyde-Smith’s response to a local news host about the rising cost of beef: “You have so many proteins to choose from,” she replied.
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she → draw → proteins
The 30-second ad jumps from the interview to a man grilling beef patties.
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ad → jump → patties
“Pick another protein?” he says.
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he → pick → protein
I’d rather pick another senator instead.”
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I → pick → senator
Colom drove a “pick your protein” taco truck, giving free tacos to voters.
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Colom → drive → voters
National voting groups and attorneys descended upon the Magnolia state, joining the local groups that worked to mobilize voters.
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that → descend → voters
Democratic and Republican groups, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and Democratic election attorneys from the Elias Law Group, have deployed hundreds of volunteers and lawyers to all the state’s 82 counties to oversee the final rounds of counting.
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groups → include → counting
Mississippi has no automatic recount law.
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Mississippi → have → law
A recount can only happen if ordered by a court in response to a lawsuit against a county or county election commission from a political party or campaign.
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recount → happen → party
Mississippi law does not establish a system for challenging ballots on a statewide scale, so the process would have to be on a county-by-county basis.
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process → establish → basis
As counting continued, both Hyde-Smith and Colom projected confidence that they would prevail.
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they → continue → confidence
“I assure you,” Hyde-Smith said in remarks on election night, “I will continue to be your US senator.”
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I → assure → night
Asked about the comments at a press conference the next day, Colom replied: “Bless her heart.”
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Colom → ask → heart
The Aporia
