Democratic nominee Scott Colom has defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s closely contested U.S. Senate race after a prolonged ballot counting process, giving the state its first Black U.S. 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 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.
Internet friends, what is the black population of Mississippi? Why hasn’t this happened in 150 years? It isn’t the black population…
It’s Gerry’s fault. Gerry Mander.
And Gerry’s friend Ray. Ray Cism.
Senate elections are statewide races, so gerrymanders don’t (directly) apply.
It’s full on suppression and disenfranchisement in much of the south, but ESPECIALLY Mississippi, there are part of the delta that feel like it’s still 1830.
About 40% of Mississippi’s people are black, though I would suspect they make up a smaller percentage of Mississippi’s registered voters
I just looked it up. The data from 2024 is 55.2% White, 36.3% Black, 3.7% Hispanic, 3.0% Multiracial, 1.0% Asian, and 0.8% Native American/Other.
It’s hard to fathom that they haven’t had a black senator for about 150 years with those demographics. I know, people say “tyranny of the majority.” But this really seems tyrannical.
Black people make up over a third of the population, yet black children had never in their lives experienced a black senator. And neither had their parents or grandparents or great grandparents.
Not coincidentally, 150 years ago is about when the union army ended the last of its occupation of the southern states.