FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 15, 2026

On Tax Day, a full accounting: Cindy Hyde-Smith’s vote stripped health care, gutted teacher raises, and threatens rural hospitals — all to deliver a permanent tax handout to people making more than $600,000 a year

District Attorney Colom: “As a prosecutor, I know how to build a case, and this one isn’t complicated […] come November, Mississippians are going to hold Cindy Hyde-Smith accountable for serving folks in D.C. instead of fighting for Mississippi families”

Columbus, MS — Today, as Mississippians file their taxes, District Attorney Scott Colom laid out a full accounting of what Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith’s vote for the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is costing the state — in health coverage stripped, teacher raises gutted, and rural hospitals put at risk, all to pay for tax breaks for billionaires.

“Today, Tax Day, reminds us how every working Mississippian is expected to do their part. But it should also remind us how we sent Cindy Hyde-Smith to D.C. to do her part for our state and she totally betrayed us instead. She voted to strip health care from 142,000 of our neighbors—people we know, people we go to church with—and the consequences are already hitting home: teacher raises were gutted and our rural hospitals are on the brink all so she could hand a permanent tax break to people making over $600,000 a year,” said District Attorney Colom. “As a prosecutor, I know how to build a case, and this one isn’t complicated. I’m going to keep making it everywhere I go, and come November, Mississippians are going to hold Cindy Hyde-Smith accountable for serving folks in D.C. instead of fighting for Mississippi families.”

What Hyde-Smith’s Vote Cost Mississippians:

• 142,000: Cindy Hyde-Smith voted to strip health care coverage from 142,000 Mississippians so that people making more than $600,000 a year could get a permanent tax cut.
  • Mississippi has the lowest per-capita income in the country, and more than half of the 667,000 Mississippians enrolled in Medicaid are children.
  • But most Mississippians will never see a dollar of those cuts.
• 110,000: Thanks to the OBBBA’s gutting of ACA premium subsidies, around 110,000 Mississippians are expected to lose their health coverage entirely — and the 338,000 who keep it are already paying an average of $602 more per year.
  • Providers across Mississippi are also looking at an additional $981 million in lost funding — money that was going to doctors, clinics, and hospitals across the state.
• 8: Eight of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are now at risk of closing because of health care cuts Hyde-Smith supported — in a state with more rural emergency hospitals than any other in the country.
  • Just this week, that threat became even more real: Greenwood Leflore Hospital, a more-than-century-old institution and one of Leflore County’s largest employers, warned its roughly 425 remaining employees it could close permanently on June 15.
  • If it does, Greenwood’s 13,000 residents will face a 33-mile drive to the nearest hospital. This is what Hyde-Smith’s vote made possible.
• $4,000: That’s how much of their promised raise Mississippi’s 30,000 teachers lost because the OBBBA’s Medicaid cuts devoured the state’s budget.
  • Both the House ($5,000) and Senate ($6,000) had already passed meaningful raises. Then the Medicaid bill driven by the OBBBA came due — and the raise collapsed to $2,000.
  • Mississippi teachers are already the lowest-paid in the nation, with starting salaries $4,700 behind neighboring states.
  • Hyde-Smith’s vote didn’t just hurt the families who lost their health coverage — now it’s also taking money out of Mississippi classrooms.

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About Scott: Scott Colom is a seventh-generation Mississippian, proud husband and father of two, and district attorney who fights every day to keep Mississippians safe. Guided by his Christian faith, Scott has dedicated his life to serving his neighbors and keeping them safe from violent criminals. Now he’s running to lower costs for families, save our Mississippi hospitals, and bring good jobs home. Scott loves his state and will always put Mississippi first – and he’ll work with anyone, Republican or Democrat, to get things done for us.