Vote counting continued on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, to determine the winner of the U.S. Senate race in Mississippi. Early morning results showed Democrat Scott Colom with a lead of a handful of votes over the Republican incumbent, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Sen. Hyde-Smith, 67, has served in the chamber since 2018 and is seeking reelection. Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney and seventh-generation Mississippian, campaigned on issues including health care and the cost of living. The state has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1982.
With 96% of the ballots counted as of Wednesday morning, the candidates were separated by just a few dozen votes. Speaking to his supporters in the early hours of Wednesday, Colom stated that the results were "trending in our direction" and noted that his campaign was competitive in counties where others believed they had no chance.
The outcome of the race will determine the final scale of the Democratic majority in the Senate. Democrats have already secured enough flips of Republican-held seats to gain control of the chamber in the new year, though results in Mississippi and a race in Alaska remain outstanding.
The closeness of the race follows the 2024 presidential election where Donald Trump won Mississippi by 20 percentage points. A victory for Colom would represent a shift in the state’s federal representation for the first time in 44 years. Current reporting did not specify the exact number of outstanding ballots or the specific date by which a final certification is expected.
What happens next depends on the tallying of the final 4% of votes. Official deadlines for state certification were not reported in the source material.