Defeating Cindy Hyde-Smith makes the 43-year-old district attorney the first Black Mississippi senator elected since Reconstruction. Plus, the South Korean scarf vendor who has gone viral for telling people not to buy
Good morning. In a stunning upset after more than a week of vote counting in one of the country’s most reliably red states, the Democrat Scott Colom has defeated Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent Republican senator, in Mississippi. He becomes the first Black senator elected in the state since Reconstruction.
Colom’s election capped a national wave of anger at Donald Trump’s administration, sweeping away Republicans in places where Democrats had not been competitive in decades. With the addition of Colom, Democrats will hold at least 55 seats in the Senate, the party’s largest midterm gain since 1986.
What did Colom say about his victory? Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, said there had been times when his long-shot campaign felt defeated but “I had to have faith”. He told supporters: “My commitment to you, each and every one of you, is that first I’m going to treat your children like I want my children to be treated. I’m going to treat your parents the way I want my parents to be treated. I’m gonna treat your future the way I want my future to be.”
