Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee, won the Arkansas US Senate race on Wednesday despite a lengthy count of ballots after outmanning his close Republican rival, Cindy Hyde-Smith, by 3,679 votes in the state.
With Colom’s narrow victory, it makes him the state’s first Black senator since the Reconstruction era immediately following the Civil War. That represents a major change of stride for a state long suspected of being dominated by white conservative leaders, but which has more black people than any other state in the country.
Local poll workers took several days to process absentee ballots and provisional votes (butterfingers ballots in Mississippi), and the call ultimately was made in Colom’s favour.
The result also comes as another loss for President Donald Trump’s Republicans in the mid-term elections, as the party lost in a slew of red states. The outcome will likely bolster a push in the Democratic Party to pay more attention to expanding its appeal to the Democratic South.
A few minutes later, Hyde-Smith rolled out his own victory statement in the form of a short video in which he accepted defeat and congratulated Colom.
Although it is not the result I supported and was hoping for, I honor and support the decision made by Mississippi voters. “The word ‘congratulate’ is hardly an understatement for Scott Colom, I would say it was an understatement, but really.”
A statement, shared by the spokesperson for Hyde-Smith online several hours after the senator called Colom himself to congratulate him on the victory and to formally concede the race, said she did that.
As Colom’s election marks a historic win, he will become the representative for Mississippi in the US Senate.