National political reporter Lauren Egan spent a day on the trail with District Attorney Scott Colom and found a race that strategists, pollsters, and major Democratic groups are increasingly taking seriously — READ HERE
New polling has Hyde-Smith leading by just 3 points; veteran Democratic pollster Kevin Akins tells The Bulwark the race “has the beginnings and makings of another race that could be in the single digits”
Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville: “It would take a unique set of circumstances, but we just might be operating under a unique set of circumstances
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 2026
Columbus, MS — Today, In a new deeply reported piece, The Bulwark’s Lauren Egan chronicles a day on the campaign trail with District Attorney Scott Colom and lays out, in detail, why a growing list of national reporters, strategists, and Democratic groups are paying close attention to Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race — and why, as Egan writes, the eyerolls are starting to fade.
Egan’s reporting captures dynamics that on-the-ground observers and national political strategists have been pointing to for some time: that Mississippi Democrats have been steadily closing the gap cycle after cycle; that primary turnout this March came within 8,000 votes of the Republican total in a state Donald Trump carried by 23 points; and that Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith enters this cycle as a generationally weak incumbent with a record of neglect that is increasingly hard to defend.
“This has the beginnings and makings of another race that could be in the single digits. I truly believe that,” Democratic pollster Kevin Akins told The Bulwark, citing his recent survey showing Hyde-Smith leading Colom by just 3 points.
The piece notes that the race is drawing increasing attention from national political strategists, pollsters, and reporters who have spent decades covering Senate campaigns — and chronicles Colom’s relentless retail style across a single Saturday: a community clean-up in Vicksburg, the South Jackson Festival, a campaign office opening, and the Leake County NAACP annual dinner — a pace Egan contrasts with Hyde-Smith’s well-documented absence from public events in her own state.
Read Lauren Egan’s full piece in The Bulwark HERE.
See highlights from The Bulwark’s reporting below:
On why Mississippi is competitive this cycle:
- Circumstances are converging to flip a state that Donald Trump won by a 23-point margin: There is a charismatic Democrat at the top of the ticket, the state’s large black population is being mobilized, and there is a generationally weak Republican incumbent.
- James Carville, veteran Democratic strategist: “It would take a unique set of circumstances, but we just might be operating under a unique set of circumstances.”
On how the data shows Democratic momentum:
- Mississippi Democrats had been making consistent progress over the past few cycles: Mike Espy lost his Senate race to Hyde-Smith in 2018 by 7.8 points, then in 2019 the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Jim Hood, lost by 5.5 points, while in 2023 Brandon Presley lost his bid for governor by just 3.2 points. Last year, Democrats broke the GOP’s supermajority in the state senate.
- 158,196 voters participated in the Republican Senate primary in March compared to 150,641 in the Democratic primary — which Democratic pollsters told [The Bulwark] was unusually high turnout and, they believe, a sign of a narrowing enthusiasm gap.
On Hyde-Smith’s record of neglect and betrayal:
- Hyde-Smith, who was appointed to the Senate in 2018 to replace Thad Cochran, rarely if ever holds town halls or attends community events. And in a state that regularly ranks as the poorest in the nation, Colom argued that Mississippians are yearning for a senator who delivers.
- Hyde-Smith doesn’t have a comparable record of delivering for the state. She has taken votes that have placed rural hospitals at risk of closing. She has backed Donald Trump’s tariff agenda, even though it has hurt the state’s soybean farmers. And she voted against the 2021 infrastructure bill — which brought billions of federal dollars to the state — while even her fellow Republican Wicker supported it.
- John Byrd, a Delta-raised retiree who helps organize the South Jackson Festival, on Republicans like Hyde-Smith: “They won’t come out here.”
On Scott’s “Mississippi Matters” pitch:
- If Colom is to win the race, it won’t be because he outraises Hyde-Smith or skyrockets to TikTok fame like some of the other buzzy Democratic Senate candidates this cycle. Rather, it will be because of a relentless focus on retail politics. And, as it happens, it’s something he’s good at.
- Scott Colom: “The number-one rule of politics: Bring home resources for your state, look out for Mississippi. You got to do that because we’re not a state that can afford to have partisan warriors.”
- Scott Colom: “You got to show up, you got to listen. You got to show that you’re running a different type of campaign, rooted in listening to people. And that’s what it’s going to take to win Mississippi. I’m about to do more in one day than [Hyde-Smith] has done in six years, as far as interfacing with the public.”
- Scott Colom: “I’m not asking you to send me to D.C. to be the Democratic senator. I’m asking you to send me to D.C. to be the Mississippi Senator.”
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