CNN, NBC Project Colom Wins Mississippi Senate

Photo courtesy of Scott Colom for Senate

CNN’s Decision Desk and NBC News both project that Democrat Scott Colom has defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race. The unofficial count has not been certified.

The featured image is an official campaign portrait of Colom, taken by Christopher Dilts in Columbus, Miss., on Aug. 18, 2025.

The Lowdown

This is a projection, not a certified result. CNN called the race earlier Wednesday; NBC’s results page, which we opened at 6:03 p.m. ET, listed Colom as the projected winner as of a 5:58 p.m. ET update and marked him as the winner in its data. The vote totals below come from unofficial Associated Press figures shown on that NBC page. Mississippi’s 82 counties are still due to certify on Friday. Hyde-Smith had not conceded in the CNN report we opened.

Key Takeaways

CNN’s Decision Desk projected a Colom victory on Wednesday. NBC News listed him as the projected winner as of 5:58 p.m. ET.
Unofficial Associated Press totals on NBC’s page stood at Colom 473,336 votes (49.2 percent), Hyde-Smith 468,667 (48.7 percent) and Independent Ty Pinkins 20,234 (2.1 percent), a lead of 4,669 votes, with 98.8 percent of the expected vote in.
CNN says a Colom victory would make him Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator since the Reconstruction era, and the first Democrat to take the office there after 1982.
A plurality is enough in Mississippi’s general election for U.S. Senate; there is no runoff. County certification is due Friday.

The Full Story

What the Networks Are Projecting

CNN, in a report updated at 5:06 p.m. ET, said its Decision Desk projects Colom will win the race. NBC News later listed him as the projected winner on its Mississippi Senate results page. That page, last updated at 5:58 p.m. ET when we opened it, showed Colom with a “Projected winner” label and flagged him as the winner in the underlying results data. NBC says its vote figures come from the Associated Press and that its projections come from the NBC News Decision Desk. An earlier check of the same NBC page had still described the race as too close to call.

The Unofficial Count

The unofficial AP count on that NBC page was Colom 473,336 votes, or 49.2 percent; Hyde-Smith 468,667, or 48.7 percent; and Pinkins 20,234, or 2.1 percent. The total was 962,237 votes, with 98.8 percent of the expected vote in and about 12,000 votes estimated to remain. Colom’s unofficial lead was 4,669 votes. Those numbers can still move as remaining ballots are added. Colom is short of a majority, but Mississippi does not use a general-election runoff for U.S. Senate, so a plurality is enough to win.

What a Colom Win Would Mean

CNN says a win would make Colom the first Black person sent to the Senate from Mississippi since the Reconstruction era. The network also describes him as the first Democrat to take that office from the state after 1982, and notes that John Stennis, the last Democratic senator there, was a segregationist. Colom is a district attorney and a seventh-generation Mississippian. Hyde-Smith, the incumbent Republican, has held the seat since 2018. Our 2026 midterm live updates had listed the race as uncalled, and a charts recap from earlier in the count still treated it that way.

What Is Still Outstanding

CNN quoted Hyde-Smith telling reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday, “We are still counting votes and there’s a few thousand out. We feel confident.” That CNN report, updated Wednesday afternoon, did not describe a concession. WXXV reported on Nov. 9 that all 82 Mississippi counties must certify their election results on Friday. Until those certifications are in, the figures remain unofficial. More political coverage is on our Zeitgeist page.