The ad is simple, less than half a minute long, but many say it was the moment the nation took notice of Mississippi’s US Senate race.
asserted
nation → say → race
In it, the incumbent Republican senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a cattle farmer, answers a reporter’s question about the rising price of beef: “You know, you have so many proteins to choose from,” she says.
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she → answer → proteins
The ad then cuts to a man flipping burgers on a grill.
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ad → cut → grill
“Pick another protein?” he says.
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he → pick → protein
“Shhiiiiii – I’d rather pick another senator instead.”
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I → pick → senator
The viral ad was for Hyde-Smith’s Democratic challenger, Scott Colom, who won the Senate seat on Wednesday, becoming the first Democratic senator in Mississippi since 1982 and its first Black senator since the Reconstruction era.
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who → win → era
His ads were relevant to Mississippians and created memorable slogans – an early ad highlighted the history and progress of the state, while a more recent one spoofed the hit film Sinners, filmed in Mississippi.
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one → create → Mississippi
But his efforts to engage Mississippians didn’t start there.
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efforts → engage → Mississippians
Colom spent the past year reaching Mississippi residents where they were.
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they → spend → residents
From driving a “pick another protein” truck that offered free tacos, to talking to students and alums at college homecomings, to chatting with voters queued to see Donald Trump, Colom campaigned on an idea that’s not novel to Mississippians, but one that the rest of the country is only starting to fully realize: “Mississippi Matters.”
asserted
Mississippi → drive → country
And he did it with little help from the Democratic party.
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he → do → party
‘We’re a state that has to matter’
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that → ’re → ?
When Colom announced his campaign last year, pundits largely wrote him off as another Democratic challenger with no chance of winning.
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pundits → announce → chance
For much of the campaign cycle, prognosticators labeled the Senate seat as “solid R”, something he said made it more difficult for him to fundraise.
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him → label → something
Within three months of launching his campaign, Colom raised about $594,000.
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Colom → launch → 594,000
In that same period, Hyde-Smith raised nearly $1.1m, including a significant donation from Aipac, the pro-Israel lobbying group.
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Smith → raise → Aipac
Shortly before the election, Colom had raised about $3.6m, compared with Hyde-Smith’s $5.3m.
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Colom → raise → 5.3
It’s also hard to unseat an incumbent senator in Mississippi – prior to Colom’s election, it hadn’t been done since 1942.
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it → ’ → 1942
In 2015, he unseated an incumbent who’d held the circuit’s district attorney’s seat for almost three decades.
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who → unseat → decades
That election made Colom the first Black district attorney for the 16th circuit, a position in which he held a 94% success rate for convictions.
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he → make → convictions
In 2023, Biden nominated Colom, a seventh-generation Mississippian, to serve as a US district court judge for the northern district of Mississippi.
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Colom → nominate → Mississippi
Republicans, including the senator Roger Wicker, and Democrats alike supported the nomination.
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Republicans → include → nomination
But Hyde-Smith blocked it.
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Smith → block → it
On election day, well before the race was called, Hyde-Smith joked about her decision, saying: “I blocked Scott Colom from being a federal judge, and you blocked him from being a US Senator.”
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you → call → him
In the end, Mississippi didn’t block Colom.
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Mississippi → block → Colom
He knew that to win, he needed Black voter turnout and the support of about a quarter of white voters.
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he → know → voters
And that’s what he did, flipping counties that had been Republican strongholds.
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that → ’ → counties
Part of Colom’s campaign success was his ability to talk to voters as people, two Mississippians having a chat, not as someone trying to solicit a vote.
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Part → talk → vote
“I don’t do speeches,” Colom said days before the election.
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Colom → do → election
“I speak from my heart.
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I → speak → heart
I talk about what I care about, I listen to people.”
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I → talk → people
He talked to people at Waffle Houses, chatted them up in barber shops and hair salons, and visited with employees at fast food restaurants and big box stores.
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He → talk → restaurants
By April, the senator Ralph Warnock was telling national Democrats to pay attention to Colom’s campaign.
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senator → tell → campaign
Instead, they laughed at him.
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they → laugh → him
It wasn’t until a month before the election – seeing the impact of “pick another protein” and Colom’s rising popularity outside the state – that the party began seriously infusing cash into the campaign.
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party → see → campaign
National leaders such as Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg and Cory Booker stumped across the Magnolia state.
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leaders → stump → state
Colom’s momentum, which had steadily been building for months, crescendoed even more.
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which → build → months
“[People have to] understand how much potential and promise we have in Mississippi,” he said.
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he → have → Mississippi
“We’re a state that has to matter, that this country will never reach its potential if it ignores places like Mississippi.
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it → ’re → Mississippi
”
‘I speak from my heart’
asserted
I → speak → heart
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
