'Long shot' upset taunts GOP as senator faces candidate she rejected for lifetime seat

A Mississippi GOP Senator may be challenged for her seat by a Democrat she once blocked from a federal judge appointment, according to a Semafor story,

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is set to face Scott Colom, who was the subject of Hyde-Smith’s 2023 veto as he sought a seat as a federal judge. The irony is that if he won appointment for life, he would likely not be seeking her seat.

Colom is expected to win the Democratic Senate race this week in the state's primary.

While Colom is an admitted longshot as a progressive Democrat running in a deep-red state, he has done research into a key talking point for the campaign trail.

When his federal bench appointment was denied by Hyde-Smith, who cited his progressive views, Colom "dug into her voting record," according to Semafor. He plans to cite her failure to bring the state federal funding for infrastructure investments and the domestic chip-building industry. Both would bolster the economy in one of the poorest U.S. states.

“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.

The campaign rhetoric is already heating up. Jake Morissen, Hyde-Smith’s campaign manager, brought up Colom's prior support of the transgender community. Colom signed a letter five years ago from an organization representing prosecutors and law enforcement to “condemn the ongoing efforts to criminalize transgender people.”

Mississippi has long been a Republican stronghold. The last Democrat to win the state was Sen. John Stennis in 1982. President Donald Trump won the state by 22 points in 2024.

However, things may be changing. In the 2018 senatorial race, former Rep. Mike Espy lost to Hyde-Smith by only seven points. Democrats also came with three points of winning the governor’s race in 2023, and took several state legislative seats in 2025, breaking a GOP supermajority.