Pete Buttigieg Campaigns for Scott Colom in Mississippi Senate Race

Pete Buttigieg Campaigns for Scott Colom in Mississippi Senate Race

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Pete Buttigieg Pushes Mississippi Voters to Send Shockwaves in High-Stakes Senate Race

Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged Mississippi voters on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, to send political shockwaves through the state by backing Democratic nominee Scott Colom and rejecting incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith. Speaking to a galvanized crowd at a Biloxi community center, Buttigieg argued that folks are saying they need help affording the things they buy at the store every week.

Mississippi Today reported that the final stretch of the Senate race has triggered a heavy influx of national campaign spending and high-profile visits. Democrats sense a rare opening in a reliably conservative state that has not sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in over four decades, driven in part by sliding national approval ratings for President Donald Trump.

National Figures Converge on the Magnolia State

The high-stakes electoral battleground has drawn heavyweights from both parties. President Trump traveled to Corinth on Monday to rally support for Hyde-Smith.

On the opposing side, a steady parade of national Democrats has descended upon the state to energize the electorate. Former Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in Columbus, while Senators Lisa Blunt Rochester, Angela Alsobrooks, and Cory Booker have made recent campaign stops. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia headed to Jackson to hold fundraisers and rallies, and former President Barack Obama cut an advertisement urging residents to back Colom.

Buttigieg framed the national focus on Mississippi as long overdue. Addressing hundreds of supporters, he pushed back against the traditional playbook that writes off Southern conservative electorates.

“I think it’s always been a mistake to overlook Mississippi,” Buttigieg said, adding that there is “no such thing as a permanently red state, district or county.”

Federal Funding Restores Amtrak Gulf Coast Service

Earlier on Tuesday, Buttigieg and Colom held a press conference outside the Coast Transit Authority in Gulfport. The pair celebrated the 2025 restoration of Amtrak’s Gulf Coast “Mardi Gras Service” connecting Alabama and Louisiana—a passenger rail line that had remained shuttered since Hurricane Katrina until federal funding from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill revived it.

While Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker supported the legislation, Hyde-Smith voted against it on the grounds that it would expand the national debt. Colom called that vote hypocritical, noting during the press conference that Hyde-Smith has shown little resistance to debt accumulation under Trump’s agenda.

Economic anxiety remains a central flashpoint in the contest. Buttigieg pointed to the struggle of people affording things they buy at the store every week. Meanwhile, Colom centered his campaign message on safeguarding rural health infrastructure.

“My commitment to you is that I am going to fight to do everything in my power to save our healthcare and save our hospitals,” Colom told voters in Biloxi.

As the final days of the campaign tick down, both campaigns are pouring resources into key regional strongholds like the Gulf Coast. Whether this late surge of national star power and economic debate can fundamentally alter the trajectory of Mississippi politics will be decided at the ballot box on November 3.

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