Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom is fighting for more than just a Senate seat to represent Mississippi. His campaign has challenged the political assumptions that have kept Democrats from competing across the South and proving that Mississippi is not beyond reach. In an exclusive interview with The Root’s publisher Ashley Allison, Colom discussed why Democrats have struggled to secure enough votes in Mississippi and why he believes the state is more competitive than party leaders have allowed voters to imagine. Check out The Root’s full interview with Scott Colom here.
With just days until the Nov. 3 midterm elections, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
“The reason Democrats haven’t won in Mississippi is one, they haven’t been trying, and two, people don’t believe we can do it,” Colom told Allison.
Mississippi hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate in more than 44 years. And a Black senator hasn’t represented the state since Reconstruction. That’s a political history Colom is determined to challenge.
RELATED: Mississippi Has Never Elected a Black U.S. Senator. Now, Scott Colom Could Change That
Despite the odds, his campaign has brought the once-unthinkable possibility of a Democratic victory into the conversation. Several polls have predicted a win for Trump-backed incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, according to the Clarion Ledger. But amid redistricting battles and economic concerns, Colom sees an opening to build a coalition that could defy expectations.
“Mississippi’s never been a lost cause,” Colom said, adding that the state has “been a betrayed cause.”
The numbers help explain his argument. In 2024, President Donald Trump secured 60% of the vote in Mississippi, while Sen. Roger Wicker won reelection by 26 points, according to NBC News. In 2020, Joe Biden received 41% of the vote compared with Trump’s 58%, numbers that largely echoed the results of the 2016 presidential election, too.
But Colom argues those results don’t tell the whole story. For years, Democrats have treated Mississippi as a political write-off rather than investing in the communities and voters who could make the state competitive. Voters, he said, deserve more than campaign-season lip service.
“When you don’t compete in a place like Mississippi, what you’re telling those voters is… You just don’t matter enough to us to actually fight for your vote and inspire you to actually get out there and do something about it,” Colom added.
It’s a message that carries particular weight for Black Mississippians, whose votes have been central to Democratic victories nationally but haven’t translated into statewide representation their numbers might suggest. Colom’s campaign is making the case that those voters deserve to be courted, heard and invested in.
For more than a year, Colom has been taking that message directly to communities across Mississippi, working to build the kind of grassroots support that conventional political wisdom has often dismissed.
“What I think we’re showing in this moment– and it’s not something I’m doing, it’s something the people of Mississippi are doing– is we’re showing that we actually matter,” he said.
That people-powered approach has attracted national attention, including endorsements from former Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama. But beyond that, Colom’s candidacy has put questions of representation, economic affordability and political accountability at the center of the high-profile race. A historic victory could also force Democrats to reconsider how they approach the South.
“Creating a belief is something that one person can’t do. Only a group of people can do that. It takes city by city, county after county, community after community. And we did it the hard way,” he added. “Because we did it that way, we’re ready for this moment, and we’re ready to win.”
