Mississippi Democrat declared winner of US Senate race

JACKSON, Mississippi — Democratic nominee Scott Colom has defeated Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s closely contested US Senate race after a prolonged ballot counting process, giving the state its first Black US senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction.

Colom’s narrow victory is a seismic shift in Mississippi, which has been controlled mostly by white conservatives for generations, and it will echo through the country as well. The outcome adds to a decisive midterm rebuke of US President Donald Trump, whose party suffered defeats in several Republican-controlled states, and it will bolster some Democrats’ argument that their future runs through the American South.

The Associated Press calls the contest Wednesday in Colom’s favor after local elections officials spent several days processing absentee and provisional ballots, called affidavit ballots in Mississippi.