Both Mississippi Senate candidates on Wednesday vowed to have people closely monitor final vote counting after neither was declared a victor on Election Day.
Legal challenges are possible, which would put Mississippi’s courts into uncharted territory and prolong a process that could take a week even without litigation to determine a winner.
2026 Mississippi midterm election results
And all eyes are on Mississippi to see if Democrat Scott Colom will pull off an historic upset over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, and have the Magnolia State join a blue wave that swept out Republicans nationwide on Tuesday.
By Wednesday afternoon, Colom, a Democratic district attorney in north Mississippi led incumbent Hyde-Smith, a cattle farmer from Brookhaven, by less than 100 votes in incomplete and unofficial results.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom speaks to his supporters during his election watch party at the Ice House in Jackson on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi TodayMany pundits are expecting a fierce legal battle over the final Mississippi vote count, whichever way it breaks. But this would be an unprecedented challenge. Mississippi has no automatic recount law or no process for a candidate to request one. A recount would happen only if a court ordered it.
But the gap in the law goes further than recounts. State law contains no mechanism for contesting a U.S. Senate general election. The election code allows challenges to primary elections, including Senate primaries, but speaks only to countywide contests for general elections.
Colom said at a press conference Wednesday morning that his campaign had deployed attorneys across the state to monitor local election officials counting the remaining ballots and processing affidavit and absentee ballots that could arrive over the next week.
“We will protect the process of this election,” Colom said. “We will protect the integrity of this election.”
Ballots remained uncounted in Hinds County, the most populous area of the state and a Democratic stronghold and in counties along the Coast where Hyde-Smith has maintained an edge. Thousands of affidavit and mail-in ballots also remain to be counted.
An affidavit ballot is Mississippi’s version of a provisional ballot, which is a vote cast by someone whose eligibility can’t be confirmed at the polls, such as when they lack photo ID or don’t appear on the voter rolls. These are set aside and counted only after election officials verify the voter’s eligibility.
Kelcy Higgins, a Mississippi-based political operative and community organizer and director of the Magnolia Project, called for volunteers to help with Election Day fallout.
Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, with her daughter Anna-Michael Smith, speaks to supporters during her watch party held at the Sheraton Flowood The Refuge Hotel & Conference Center, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Flowood. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today“The work of the 2026 election is not over,” Higgins said. “Affidavit ballots remain to be reviewed and counted across Mississippi’s precincts, and we must ensure that every eligible vote is properly counted. Mississippi needs election protection volunteers now to help protect the process and make sure every eligible vote is counted and no voter’s voice is left out.”
Marc Elias, a prominent longtime Democratic election lawyer, also declared on Wednesday morning that he was “leading the legal effort” to ensure Colom would emerge victorious from the legal fight.
It could be a week before a winner is declared. State law allows for local election workers to receive and count mail-in absentee ballots until Nov. 10, as long as the ballots were postmarked by Election Day.
Voters also have until Nov. 10 to return to their local election officials to complete casting an affidavit ballot, which is a vote cast by someone whose eligibility can’t be confirmed at the polls because they lack photo ID or don’t appear on the voter rolls.
At a watch party on Tuesday evening, Hyde-Smith had all but declared victory.
“I assure you I will continue to be your U.S. senator.”
That was before Colom took a late-night lead.
By late morning on Wednesday, shortly after Colom addressed reporters, her campaign manager Jake Monssen issued a statement thanking supporters and pointing out that thousands of ballots remained uncounted.
“With the vast majority of Election Day ballots reported, the margin is measured in just dozens of votes,” Monssen said. “We have thousands of outstanding ballots, including affidavit and absentee ballots, which still must be processed and verified under Mississippi law. Our campaign is closely monitoring the remaining count. We remain confident that when every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted, Mississippians will have reelected Cindy Hyde-Smith.”
Colom has not declared victory, but he said he believes the numbers show he’s on a path to winning. He also responded to Hyde-Smith’s near declaration of victory the evening before.
“Bless her heart,” Colom said.
When asked if he was worried about Hyde-Smith and the GOP launching election lawsuits, Colom said he hopes that she “would understand the people of Mississippi have spoken.”
“We have to accept the will of the voters,” Colom said. “It’s very clear that we’re going in a new direction. We’re prepared to litigate, though. We were prepared for this for months. We have an army of lawyers.”
The narrow margin in and of itself reflected what some onlookers called a “bluenami,” with Democrats notching stunning victories in Republican strongholds such as South Carolina and Texas.
Most forecasters had rated the Mississippi Senate race as safely Republican. But as results came in, it became clear the race would be anything but safe for the GOP, with Colom overperforming in many counties compared to Democrats in other recent races.
A trove of national Democrats visited the state to stump for Colom in hopes that Mississippi could flip blue for the first time in over four decades. These included former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigeig and around a dozen U.S. senators.
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington was at Colom’s election night party and said she had been an early believer in Colom’s campaign.
“He has focused this race on the things that people in Mississippi need to be successful,” Cantwell said. “Access to health care, affordable products like groceries and fuel. And he’s talked about Mississippi mattering on a larger scale. I’m excited for him.”
Democrats have been dreaming of a political upset in Mississippi for years and seemed almost in disbelief at Colom’s watch party at the early election returns.
After having narrowly lost the governor’s race in 2019 and 2023, several Mississippi Democrats thought they would have a repeat of those races. But after Colom led in several bellwether areas like DeSoto, Lafayette and Madison counties, the room started to buzz.
Wil Colom, Scott Colom’s father, approached Charles Taylor, the Mississippi NAACP chapter president, with a smile on his face and asked if he thought his son was trending in the right direction.
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Taylor told the elder Colom with a smirk.
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