US: Democrat Scott Colom is Mississippi first Black senator ⁰

Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi after a final count on Wednesday, becoming the state’s first Black US senator since Reconstruction. His narrow victory adds to the Democrats’ midterm gains as President Donald Trump’s party suffers a series of defeats.

Democratic nominee Scott Colom has defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s closely contested US Senate race after a prolonged ballot counting process, giving the state its first Black US senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction.

Colom’s narrow victory is a seismic shift in Mississippi, which has been controlled mostly by white conservatives for generations, and it will echo through the country as well. The outcome adds to a decisive midterm rebuke of President Donald Trump, whose party suffered defeats in several Republican-controlled states, and it will bolster some Democrats’ argument that their future runs through the American South.

The Associated Press called the contest Wednesday in Colom’s favour after local elections officials spent several days processing absentee and provisional ballots, called affidavit ballots in Mississippi.

A spokesman for Hyde-Smith confirmed that she has called Colom to concede.

The last time Mississippi chose a new Democratic senator was 1947, and the winner then was a staunch segregationist. Colom, a 43-year-old local prosecutor, capitalised on the state’s large Black population, discontent with the economy and Hyde-Smith’s missteps as she sought a second full term.

Source: AFP