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Scott Colom says his challenge to Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith isn’t about revenge over her blocking his bid to become a federal judge — but that she’ll still come to regret it.
Had Hyde-Smith not objected to Colom’s judicial nomination in 2023, he would be on the federal bench for life, and the Mississippi GOP senator would probably lack a real opponent. But Hyde-Smith used her veto power as a home-state senator to stop Colom; and now, she is in the unusual position of running against a nominee she tanked.
“She’s really going to regret it when we win on Nov. 3,” Colom told Semafor. “That’s when the regret’s really going to hit her.”
The charismatic 43-year-old district attorney is, to be clear, an extreme long shot as a Democratic candidate in a deep-red state. But he’s building relationships among the Senate Democratic Caucus and is favored to win the nomination on Tuesday, making the Magnolia State another one to watch in the sprawling battle for control of the chamber.
And this Senate race has far more personal intrigue than the average. After Colom withdrew his nomination, he dug into Hyde-Smith’s voting record against laws investing in infrastructure and the domestic chip-building industry. He concluded that those cut against the tradition of Mississippi senators bringing home the bacon for one of the poorest states in the nation.
“It’s easy for me to forgive somebody for stopping a judicial nomination. Now, what is motivating me to run is how she’s betraying the people of Mississippi,” Colom said. “You forgive her for that, but not for the rest of the way that she’s conducted herself as senator.”
The campaign is getting ugly already. In a statement for this story, Jake Monssen, Hyde-Smith’s campaign manager, said: “I wonder if Scott Colom regrets advocating for sex changes for children and protecting the doctors who perform the surgeries? If he doesn’t now, he will in November.”
Colom signed onto a letter five years ago to “condemn the ongoing efforts to criminalize transgender people.”
The Democrat responded that Hyde-Smith’s campaign is “lying about my record” and hit her for telling “Mississippi families they shouldn’t eat beef” amid rising prices, a reference to her recent comments about there being “many proteins to choose from” as beef prices rise.
Mississippi has one of the longest streaks of partisan representation in the modern history of the US Senate. The last Democrat to win the state was John Stennis, a segregationist who won his last six-year term in 1982. Forecasters have the state as solidly red. President Donald Trump won the state by 23 points in 2024.
Democrats tried to beat Hyde-Smith in 2018, with former Rep. Mike Espy coming within 7 points. Democrats came with 3 points of winning the governor’s race in 2023 and flipped several state legislative seats in 2025, breaking a GOP supermajority.
“I know that the national people don’t pay attention to it, but we’ve been breaking the glass,” Colom said of his state’s Democratic Party. National Democrats “talk about the same states over and over again: Florida, Texas, Florida, Texas, Florida, Texas. They never talk about any new states.”
Democrats are watching the state closely because of demographics they think could make things interesting. They also know national intervention doesn’t help Colom.
The state is 37 percent Black — the highest in the nation — and it’s an inexpensive place to run a Senate race, though there are at least a half-dozen better pick-up opportunities. Even so, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., did an event for Colom in Mississippi; Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said Colom “is running a legitimate campaign and knows what it takes.”
“I’m bullish about Mississippi,” Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., told Semafor. “Look, I’m under no illusion. This would be a really tough race in a red state. But Scott Colom is an excellent candidate, and I could see how he could build a coalition to win in Mississippi, same way I worked to.”
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Colom’s case against Hyde-Smith is that she’s out of step with the state’s tradition of center-right Republicans who bring home money: Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., former GOP Leader Trent Lott, and former Appropriations Chair Thad Cochran, whom Hyde-Smith was appointed to replace.
“Mississippi has a rich history of electing senators that understand that Mississippi and our needs have to be first … Sen. Hyde Smith is the first one we’ve had in a long time that’s totally betrayed that,” Colom said.
Hyde-Smith is far more Trump-aligned than the average GOP senator and objected to the 2020 election results. She doesn’t speak to reporters in the Capitol and keeps a generally low profile.
Wicker notably agreed to advance Colom’s nomination to be federal judge three years ago, breaking from his colleague. He told Semafor that “clearly I had a different view on that from Cindy Hyde-Smith, but our differences are few and far between. On the great issues of the day, we are aligned.
“Cindy Hyde-Smith is in a very strong position to be reelected,” Wicker added.
Republicans want to tie Colom to national Democrats. National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Samantha Cantrell said “Scott Colom was handpicked by Chuck Schumer and George Soros to push their leftist agenda on the Magnolia State.”
So far, Colom is keeping his distance. He said that “it’s not just the Republicans that have been failing rural Mississippi. It’s too many national Democrats that are ignoring Mississippi.”
Colom did not say directly whether he would support Chuck Schumer as Democratic leader if he topples Hyde-Smith; he did say the party needs fresh leadership overall.
“Leader Schumer, Leader Hakeem Jeffries, they’re both from the same borough,” Colon said. “We need leadership that understands rural America, understand the voters of Mississippi.”
Room for Disagreement
Colom wants the race to be less about Hyde-Smith’s move to block his nomination and more about her record. He also needs more media attention to help raise money, although that could also bring more Republican focus on his race.
“I need momentum, and part of that momentum, honestly, is media,” Colom said. “Media should pay attention to this race.”
Burgess’s view
I started paying attention to this race because of the revenge angle, as much as Colom is now steering away from that storyline. How often does a senator face the direct consequences of blocking a nominee, the way that Hyde-Smith is now experiencing?
And there’s a chance that, if the environment deteriorates enough for Republicans, this will become a real race. It even happened in 2018. Republicans and Trump responded by swamping the state in money and manpower to help Hyde-Smith pull it out.
If Colom starts to strengthen, it’s also a sign that Republicans have bigger problems.
Notable
- Colom outraised Hyde-Smith in the fourth quarter of 2025 (though she still has more cash on hand), per Mississippi Today.