Scott Colom
Scott Colom is an American lawyer and Democratic politician who has served as district attorney for MississippiMississippiMississippi is a state of the United States on the Gulf of Mexico; Jackson is both its capital and its largest city. It was admitted to the Union on December 10, 1817, as the 20th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 2,961,279.Open the full entry’s 16th Judicial District since 2016. He ran against Republican incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-SmithCindy Hyde-SmithCindy Hyde-Smith is an American Republican politician who has represented Mississippi in the U.S. Senate since April 2018 and is the first woman elected to represent the state in Washington. She previously served 12 years in the Mississippi State Senate and was the state’s commissioner of agriculture and commerce. In November 2026 she lost her reelection race to Democrat Scott Colom and conceded on November 11.Open the full entry in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate election on November 3, 2026; after more than a week of counting, the Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is a cooperative news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it is the oldest and largest news agency in the United States.Open the full entry declared him the winner on November 11, and Hyde-Smith conceded that day.
Contents8 sections
Key facts
Early Life: Family and Education
Colom was born and raised in Columbus, Mississippi, and his campaign website describes him as a seventh-generation Mississippian. His mother, Dorothy Colom, is a retired judge and was the first African American elected to her region’s Chancery Court; his father, Wilbur Colom, is an attorney.[1]
He received a BA from Millsaps College in 2005 and a JD cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2009.[2]
2009–2015Lawyer and Part-Time Judicial Roles
From 2009 to 2011 Colom was a staff lawyer at the Mississippi Center for Justice as a Skadden Fellow, and from 2011 to 2016 he practiced at the Colom Law Firm. In private practice he held several part-time roles: interim Justice Court judge for Lowndes County (2011–2012), municipal court judge in Aberdeen (2012–2013) and city prosecutor for Columbus (2013–2016).[2]
The University of Wisconsin Law School notes that he was the youngest and first Black justice court judge in Lowndes County and the first Black prosecutor for the city of Columbus.[3]
From 2015District Attorney
In 2015, at age 32, Colom was elected district attorney, defeating a 27-year incumbent; he has served as district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District since 2016 and has since been reelected twice. ABCABCABC (American Broadcasting Company) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It grew out of NBC’s Blue radio network, took its name after becoming independent in 1943, developed into a national television network after merging with United Paramount Theatres in 1953, was acquired by Capital Cities in 1985, and has been owned by The Walt Disney Company since 1996. With CBS and NBC it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks, and it is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry News describes the district as covering four counties along the Mississippi–Alabama state line.[1][2][4]
2022Federal Judicial Nomination
On October 14, 2022, President Joe BidenJoe BidenJoe Biden (born 1942) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. He was previously a U.S. senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009 and the 47th vice president, under Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2017.Open the full entry announced Colom as a nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. The University of Wisconsin Law School notes that he was recommended by Representative Bennie Thompson.[2][3]
In 2023 Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked the nomination; Colom has said he has forgiven her.[4]
2025–2026Running for the U.S. Senate
In September 2025 Colom announced a Democratic campaign for the U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. His campaign website lists lowering costs for families, saving Mississippi hospitals and bringing jobs home among his priorities.[1]
ABC News wrote that his campaign was initially seen as a long shot and that in its final months he appeared with figures including former President Bill ClintonBill ClintonBill Clinton (born 1946) is an American politician and lawyer, a Democrat who served as attorney general and governor of Arkansas and as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001.Open the full entry and former Vice President Kamala HarrisKamala HarrisKamala Harris (born 1964) is an American politician and lawyer who served as Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017, as a U.S. senator from 2017 to 2021, and as the 49th Vice President of the United States from 2021 to 2025.Open the full entry.[4]
November 2026Election to the U.S. Senate
Following the November 3, 2026 general election the race was close and counting lasted more than a week. On November 11 the Associated Press declared Colom the winner over Hyde-Smith; in figures cited by ABC News at the time, with about 99% of the expected vote counted, Colom had 49.2% to Hyde-Smith’s 48.7%, a margin of about 4,700 votes.[4][5]
CNBCCNBCCNBC is an American business and financial news cable channel launched by NBC in 1989; it merged with its rival FNN in 1991 and since January 2026 has been part of Versant Media Group, spun off from Comcast.Open the full entry wrote that Colom would be the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Mississippi since 1982 and the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction. Hyde-Smith called him that day to concede and said in a video that she respected the decision of Mississippi voters and congratulated Colom.[5]
That evening Colom gave a victory speech at a rally at Tougaloo College, referring to Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first Black U.S. senator, and the civil rights leader Medgar Evers, and pledged to serve all Mississippians.[4]
Related Organizations, Websites, and Public Accounts
Scott Colom for Senate: Campaign website. Official website: https://scottcolom.com/ (opens in a new window).[1]
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scott_colom/ (opens in a new window); Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColomForSenate/ (opens in a new window); TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scott.colom (opens in a new window) (all linked from the campaign website header).[1]
Sources
- Scott Colom for Senate – Mississippi Matters (opens in a new window)
- President Biden Makes Twenty-Seventh Judicial Nominations Announcement and Announces New Nominees to Serve as U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals (opens in a new window)
- Scott Colom '09 Nominated to Serve as Judge for U.S. District Court (opens in a new window)
- Democrat Colom flips Mississippi Senate seat (opens in a new window)
- Scott Colom wins Mississippi Senate election over incumbent Republican Hyde-Smith (opens in a new window)
- Scott Colom (@scott_colom) / X (opens in a new window)