Mississippi ended election night without knowing who its next senator will be. In the Associated Press tally checked on Wednesday morning, Democrat Scott Colom led Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 43 votes, 462,821 to 462,778. The AP listed the race as too early to call.
Nearly every precinct has reported. The AP count covers 1,733 of the state’s 1,736 precincts and an estimated 95.62 percent of the total vote. Each of the two leading candidates holds about 48.9 percent. Independent Ty Pinkins holds about 2 percent, a share far larger than the gap at the top.
The lead is new, and it is small. Hyde-Smith led for most of election night, according to the Mississippi Independent. Colom moved ahead by 28 votes shortly after midnight, helped by late returns from Hinds County, which covers Jackson. Later updates widened his lead to 43 votes. A shift of a few dozen votes in the remaining count would reverse it again.
Why the count is not finished
The race now rests on ballots that Mississippi counts after Election Day. County officials are still reviewing affidavit ballots, which are ballots set aside at the polls so a voter’s eligibility can be checked afterward. The Clarion Ledger reported that a winner likely will not be known for a few days. Hinds County paused its count shortly after midnight and planned to resume on Wednesday morning, the Mississippi Free Press reported. The state can also keep receiving absentee ballots for five business days after Election Day, according to the Clarion Ledger.
One number in circulation comes with a warning label. Colom’s campaign told the Clarion Ledger that as many as 15,000 affidavit ballots were filed across the state. The newspaper said it could not confirm that figure with the Secretary of State’s office. Whatever the exact number, the uncounted ballots are far more than 43.
There will be no runoff to break the tie. The Mississippi Free Press notes that general elections for federal office in Mississippi are decided by a simple plurality, so the candidate with the most votes once counting ends takes the seat.
No automatic recount
If the final margin stays this thin, Mississippi law offers no automatic second look. The state has no automatic recount and no recount that a candidate can request. A recount is possible only if a judge orders one, according to reporting by USA Today. That makes the county count itself, and any court fight that follows it, the whole ballgame.
Both campaigns settled in to wait. Gerard Henderson, Colom’s campaign manager, told supporters at the candidate’s Jackson watch party that the team was settling in for a long night, the Clarion Ledger reported.
The two candidates
Colom, 43, is the district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District, a four-county district in northeast Mississippi that includes his native Columbus. He won the office in 2015 by beating a longtime incumbent and took office in January 2016. This is his first run for federal office. President Joe Biden nominated Colom to a federal judgeship, and Hyde-Smith blocked the nomination, the Mississippi Free Press has reported.
Hyde-Smith is defending a seat she first reached by appointment. Gov. Phil Bryant appointed her in April 2018 to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Thad Cochran. She won a special election later that year and a full six-year term in 2020, and is now seeking a second full term. She is the first woman elected to represent Mississippi in Washington, according to her official Senate biography.
If Colom holds on, the result would carry a long history with it. He would be the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Mississippi since John C. Stennis won his final term in 1982, and the first Black senator from the state since Blanche K. Bruce, who left office in 1881, according to the Mississippi Free Press and the Mississippi Independent. None of that is decided while the AP lists the race as too early to call.
Senate control is not at stake
Mississippi will not decide who runs the Senate. Democrats have already won control of the chamber by flipping seven Republican-held seats, CNN reported. This race decides only whether the new Democratic majority grows by one more seat.
That is part of what makes the deadlock striking. President Donald Trump carried Mississippi by 23 points in 2024, according to CNN, and forecasters rated the race as likely Republican. Trump traveled to Corinth on October 26 to rally for Hyde-Smith, the Mississippi Free Press reported. A week later, her seat is the one still hanging on a few dozen votes.
Reporting note: Vote figures are from the Associated Press results tally checked on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, at about 6:05 a.m. ET, and were unchanged from checks earlier that morning. Reporting was cross-checked against the Clarion Ledger, the Mississippi Free Press and the Mississippi Independent. All results are unofficial and will change as counties finish counting. The AP had not called the race at the time of checking.