Trump Gives Credit to Democrat Scott Colom After Senate Win

Trump Gives Credit to Democrat Scott Colom After Senate Win

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President Trump reacted Thursday to Senator-elect Scott Colom’s upset victory in the Mississippi Senate race, noting that the Democrat earned credit for his ability to appeal to Republican voters.

The victory changes Mississippi's political direction, a state that Trump won by 23 points in 2024. According to a report from The Hill, Decision Desk HQ projected Wednesday that Colom defeated the incumbent, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, by a margin of approximately half a point.

“I don’t know the gentleman, but I give him credit,” Trump told sports commentator Stephen A. Smith during an interview at the White House. The president said that Colom campaigned directly to voters waiting in line at a recent rally in Corinth, Mississippi.

“I had a rally there, and we had lines that went 10 miles long, and he campaigned on that line — telling everybody in the line what a good job he did. I give him a lot of credit for that,” Trump said.

Trump Gives Credit to Democrat Scott Colom After Senate Win

Colom’s campaign used social media to showcase his ground game, releasing a video that has since gained many views. The clip shows Colom approaching voters in line for the president’s event to ask which issues were most important to them.

In the video, which has reached hundreds of thousands of views on both Facebook and Instagram, many voters identified high prices as a primary concern. Some participants also expressed opposition to the president’s policies regarding tariffs and the war in Iran.

Before Election Day, Decision Desk HQ had given Colom only a 9 percent chance of defeating Hyde-Smith. The outcome follows more than a week of counting late-arriving and affidavit ballots to finalize the results.

Colom’s election marks a historic moment for the state’s representation. He becomes the first Black senator ever elected by popular vote in Mississippi. He is only the third Black senator in the state’s history, following two legislature-appointees from the Reconstruction era.

The demographic context of the win is notable, as Black Mississippians comprise more than one-third of the state’s total population.

The race also serves as a personal reversal for the two candidates. In 2023, Hyde-Smith blocked Colom from receiving a confirmation hearing after President Biden nominated him to serve as a federal judge. Now, Colom has prevented Hyde-Smith from securing a second full term in the Senate.

Trump suggested during his interview with Smith that Republicans may have lost because he was not personally on the ballot, though he had previously encouraged voters to “pretend” he was.

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