Mississippi Senate Race Heats Up With $5 Million in Final Days

Voters in Mississippi face a heated contest for the U.S. Senate seat in just six days. Both major parties have rushed millions of dollars into the state in the final stretch, a shift that caught many political observers off guard given the state's historical lean toward the Republican Party.

Democratic spending has outpaced the opposition in the last month. Democrats have deployed approximately $5 million in resources, compared to $3.2 million from Republicans. A specific Republican advertisement has drawn significant attention. The Hyde-Smith campaign spent more than $1.3 million on a spot titled "Most Radical," which labels Scott Colom as the most radical Senate candidate in a lifetime and notes that violent crime doubled during his tenure as district attorney.

The race pits Colom, the state district attorney, against incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. Hyde-Smith blocked Colom’s nomination for a federal judgeship during the Biden administration. The incumbent’s campaign manager, Jake Monssen, expressed confidence in her reelection bid in a statement. He noted that President Donald Trump agreed to rally voters in Corinth to support the get-out-the-vote effort.

President Trump spoke to supporters in Corinth, Mississippi, urging them to vote despite high polling numbers. He argued that complacency leads to loss. "Sometimes when you think somebody's doing so well, nobody votes," Trump said. "'Oh, Cindy's great, she's gonna do no problem, let's stay home.' And then bad things happen, Cindy. That's why I'm here, just get out and vote."

In contrast, former Vice President Kamala Harris addressed a crowd of about 1,000 people at a rally in Colom’s hometown. She described the current administration as callous and incompetent. Harris encouraged attendees to turn their anger into action. "We've been going through that range of emotions from anger to sadness to depression, all of that for a year and a half," Harris said. "Well guess what? We're 12 days out from an election. And it's time to turn that anger into action."

Colom argued that the Democratic Party had previously neglected the state despite its large Black voter population. He claimed the party spent hundreds of millions of dollars in other states but almost nothing in Mississippi. "The reality is, Mississippi has never been a lost cause, we've been a betrayed cause," Colom said. He suggested that voters are ready to remove the incumbent from office.

The outcome will also influence future redistricting battles. Republicans in Mississippi have signaled they want to redraw state legislative and judicial maps after the midterms. Colom argued that such moves attempt to shift power from voters to leaders. The last Democratic Senator from Mississippi was elected in the early 1980s, while the last successful Black statewide candidate served during Reconstruction.