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Democrat Scott Colom has won the US Senate election in Mississippi, a surprising victory for his party in a deeply conservative state that has been electing Republican candidates for decades.
With this victory, Colom becomes the first black person from Mississippi elected to the US Senate in more than 140 years.
Just a few thousand votes separated Colom from his Republican rival, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.
The margin was so close that the result could not be confirmed until more than a week after the midterm elections, while local authorities counted all the ballots received before the deadline.
An unexpected victory
Colom won with 49.2% of the vote, compared to 48.7% for Hyde-Smith and 2.1% for an independent candidate, according to CBS data.
With this result, Democrats have a majority of 55 seats in the Senate, waiting for the close race in Alaska to be resolved.
Colom's victory also ends a streak of Republican victories in Mississippi that dated back to 1982.
image source, Reuters
No one expected the race in Mississippi to be so close, given that Hyde-Smith was seeking re-election in a state that President Donald Trump won by more than 22 percentage points in the 2024 elections.
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However, Democrats have scored a series of important victories in these midterm elections and have gained control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The party has gained Senate seats in several Republican strongholds, including Texas, South Carolina and Kansas.
According to polls, this is largely due to voter discontent with the economic situation and the war in Iran during President Trump's term.
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Colom appeared to benefit from discontent with Republicans across the country.
According to exit polls, voters' rejection of Trump's Republican Party was largely due to economic problems, attributed to his administration's tariffs and the war with Iran.
Colom, a local prosecutor, took advantage of that climate to highlight his rival's support for Trump's tariffs and nicknamed her "Cindy High Prices."
The Democrat ran an intense campaign in which he visited all 82 Mississippi counties.
Hyde-Smith's campaign accused Colom of being a puppet of George Soros, the billionaire liberal donor whose family has helped finance the Democrat's political campaigns.
His opponents criticized Hyde-Smith for his few public appearances.
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