With President Trump in her corner, Senator Hyde-Smith doesn’t pull punches as she seeks re-election

• U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith visited with Magnolia Tribune for her first comprehensive interview in the midterm election cycle. She spoke openly about her Democrat opponent, calling him a socialist, and addressed issues top of mind for voters in Mississippi.

“This isn’t my first rodeo.”

That sentiment sums up how U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith is approaching her re-election campaign.

The incumbent Republican will face two challengers in the November General Election – Scott Colom, the Democrat nominee, and Ty Pinkins, a former Democrat now running as an Independent.

In her first comprehensive interview in this midterm cycle, Hyde-Smith spoke candidly with Magnolia Tribune about the race, her opponents, her work in the U.S. Senate, and her relationship with President Donald Trump.

About Hyde-Smith

Senator Hyde-Smith’s agriculture roots run deep in the Central Mississippi region. Her family raises beef cattle. They are also partners in a local stockyard auction market.

In 1999, she entered state politics, running for a seat in the Mississippi Senate as a Democrat.

“I beat a 20-year incumbent when I had never run for anything in my life, and I took out a 20-year incumbent in the state Senate,” Hyde-Smith recalls. “And by the way, I had a five-week-old baby when I qualified to run for that seat.”

She went on to serve three terms in the Legislature, rising to be the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. She would switch to being a Republican during her final term in the state Senate.

In 2011, Hyde-Smith ran for Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce. She bested two opponents in the Republican Primary and went on to win the statewide election with nearly 57% of the vote over two general election opponents. She then cruised to re-election four years later, increasing her vote total to over 61%, again with two opponents in the 2015 general election.

Nearly three years later, Hyde-Smith was appointed by then Governor Phil Bryant (R) to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Thad Cochran (R) upon his retirement. She became the first woman to represent Mississippi in Washington D.C.

The special election to fill the remaining term saw Hyde-Smith pitted against former Democratic Congressman and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy as well as state Senator Chris McDaniel (R) and newcomer Tobey Bartee. Hyde-Smith and Espy drew the most votes, sending them on to a runoff, with Hyde-Smith ultimately winning the special election by 7%.

Two years later, Hyde-Smith was up for re-election for her first full six-year term. She was unopposed in the Republican Primary but would again face Espy in the general election along with a Libertarian candidate. Hyde-Smith increased her margin of victory, even with two other candidates on the ballot, winning by 10% in 2020.

“So, you know, I have been through the trenches. I’ve run statewide, I’ve been in 82 counties, been there, done that,” Hyde-Smith said. “The people already know me. And you know, I’m glad that I have the name ID that I have, but I’m glad that it’s a positive one, too.”

This midterm cycle, Hyde-Smith has already withstood what seemed to be a semi-coordinated attack from her Republican Primary challenger, newcomer Sarah Adlakha, and the Democratic nominee Colom. The GOP challenger and the Democrat were using similar rhetoric in their messaging in an attempt to nip at the incumbent’s heels during the March primary.

However, that line of attack did not work, as Hyde-Smith easily disposed of Adlakha in the GOP Primary, pulling in nearly 81% of the vote.

Hyde-Smith’s Challengers

Hyde-Smith is now again in a heated race heading into November. Her main opponent is Colom, the entrenched Democrat, who she calls a “great concern.”

“I think Scott Colom, he is so capable of so much trash that the people of Mississippi are going to realize that pretty fast,” she said of the Democrat. “I mean, my gosh, I’ve never had such a liberal, such a socialist that I’m going to have to identify.”

Colom is the District Attorney in the 16th Circuit Court District. He ousted a nearly 30-year incumbent in 2015 to win the seat and then went on to run unopposed in his 2019 re-election bid. He defeated a Republican challenger in 2023 to secure his third term.

Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since John Stennis was re-elected in 1982. Colom, in a recent interview with Magnolia Tribune, said he welcomed the challenge in this 2026 midterm election.

READ MORE: Mississippi hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1982. Scott Colom believes he will change that in November

As for Pinkins, Hyde-Smith was less animated when speaking on the independent candidate.

“I think that Ty is probably going to be a really good, decent candidate,” she said of Pinkins, pointing to his actions in his past campaigns as that being the “norm.”

READ MORE: Independent U.S. Senate candidate Pinkins believes many Mississippi voters want something different

Pinkins, a Delta attorney, previously ran for U.S. Senate as a Democrat, losing to Senator Roger Wicker (R) in 2024. Before that, he was the substitute candidate for the Mississippi Democratic Party in the Secretary of State race in 2023, a race he also lost to a Republican incumbent, Michael Watson.

Taking on Colom

Hyde-Smith pulled very few punches when speaking about her Democrat opponent.

“I’m not going negative. I’m going honest,” she said. “This guy is a dangerous character.”

Colom was nominated by former President Joe Biden (D) to be a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. It was Hyde-Smith who did not return a “blue slip” for Colom in 2023, an action that equated into essentially a veto of the nominee by the Senator ending his chance of gaining confirmation.

“It was my job to research him. It was my job to do the background check on him,” Hyde-Smith said of the process that led her to oppose Colom’s nomination. “When you’re appointing a judge and he’s going to be there forever, you better know exactly who you’re appointing and exactly who you’re supporting.”

She said as she looked deeper into who Colom was and what he supported, “it scared me to death.”

“To think that he came that close to being a federal judge, that he is even a current sitting DA right now because of his very, very extreme agenda,” Hyde-Smith said. “When I tell you this guy is extreme, he is off the chart extreme. I would compare him to AOC. I would compare him to Chuck Schumer. And if he were to get elected, he would be right in lock step with them.”

Colom often uses his father as a way of trying to connect with more conservative voters when on the campaign trail.

“My dad was a Republican for a long time and worked with both Republicans and Democrats to try to make our state better,” Colom has said.

But Hyde-Smith is not buying what Colom is selling.

“I think that his Dad has done a lot. I don’t know his Dad, but I know he must be a really good guy. A lot of folks in Mississippi have the highest regard and highest respect for his Dad,” Hyde-Smith said. “But I’m telling you, when that apple fell from that tree, it rolled all the way down the hill to the bottom. And I know that sounds harsh, but people on the Judiciary Committee came to me when they were doing their background search on whether to vote to bring him out of committee. They came to my office and sat down with me and said there’s no way you can let this guy become a federal judge.”

Hyde-Smith said people in D.C. have labeled Colom “the defender of transgender.”

“It’s a correct accurate label, the defender of transgender,” she said, recalling a joint statement of “prosecutors and law enforcement leaders” who condemned “the criminalization of transgender people and gender-affirming care.” The statement included a long list of progressives, including Letitia James, the Attorney General in New York.

“How they paired up, who knows? But they signed on to this letter defending transgenders, not wanting to prosecute transgenders, and I mean even to the point of letting minors have surgery without their parents’ consent,” Hyde-Smith said.

For his part, Colom told Magnolia Tribune last week, “I’m not for biological boys playing girls sports. I’m not for gender-affirming surgeries for children. I’ve never been for those things.” He now says Hyde-Smith “has lied about it on me consistently.”

Hyde-Smith also takes exception with Colom’s campaign tactics.

“He started out the campaign with total lies that he had to later come back and admit that he lied,” she said.

As reported by Magnolia Tribune, on his first day being in the race in September 2025, Colom called someone who he said was Hyde-Smith to “wish her a good night.”

“Alright everybody, I just announced that I’m running for United State Senate against Cindy Hyde-Smith,” Colom said in the video. “This is not personal. I’m going to call her and wish her good night. Let’s see if she answers.”

A woman’s voice was then heard answering the phone, to which Colom says, “I can’t believe she answered.” Colom went on to recite a litany of campaign talking points over the call, until he closes with, “Bless your heart, OK?”

However, the call was staged and the person on the other end of the line was not Hyde-Smith.

“He did a video of pretending to talk to me on the telephone,” Hyde-Smith said. “It was the creepiest thing. It was just the most bizarre political move I’ve ever seen. And it was on day one that he started lying and he has this fake woman on the other end of the phone answering him that he said was me and I never talked to Scott Colom that day ever.”

She said when she started getting calls she thought, “How can he blatantly start out with lies on day one? But he did.”

“But he learned really quick that you don’t impersonate a U.S. Senator,” Hyde-Smith said. “So, from day one, he started lying. He continues to do that. And I’ve just never had an opponent quite like this, that I am so alarmed that I said, yeah, we’re gonna stay on the high road because we have got to let the folks in Mississippi know how dangerous this opponent is.” 

Campaign Finances

Second quarter campaign finance reports were filed with the Federal Election Commission last week. Hyde-Smith reportedly raised over $781,000 between the three committees supporting her re-election bid, leaving her with a cash on hand total of $2.54 million.

Colom’s finance report showed he pulled in $945,000 between the committees backing him. His cash on hand rose by nearly $300,000 to $847,000 in the second quarter. Pinkins’ latest campaign finance report is not showing with the FEC. His previous report for the first quarter showed him with $632 cash on hand.

Hyde-Smith has repeatedly taken issue with Colom’s financial supporters, specifically naming liberal financier George Soros, his family and his related political committees.

“I’m just having to identify who [Colom] is,” the Senator said. “He’s backed by George Soros. When you run with the big dogs, you come up with big fleas like Chuck Schumer, AOC, Hakeem Jeffries. He would be there to totally support their agenda.”

She noted that in Colom’s first District Attorney race it was Soros who was the sole donor to a political action committee that made $716,000 in expenditures to support him.

“I assure you, there has never been a DA race in three counties in Mississippi that $700,000 came from one person. That’s never happened,” Hyde-Smith said. “They have handpicked him. He is their guy that they want to be there to replace me in the U.S. Senate. But that’s not going to happen because I assure you, I will identify him.”

Colom has also called Hyde-Smith campaign finance reporting into question, claiming she is taking out-of-state money, what he has called, “corporate money, lobbyist money.” He frequently mentions a campaign fundraising trip to Las Vegas when stumping against her around the state.

However, Hyde-Smith said such fundraisers by sitting Senators are common.

“We all have a signature fundraiser that everybody does. Roger Wicker goes to Napa Valley. Deb Fischer hosts a skiing event. We all have these signature fundraisers,” Hyde-Smith said. “Mine is obviously where I’m comfortable at the National Finals Rodeo. All my friends from all across the country, they’re going to be there anyway. So, we take advantage of that. I had four other Senators at my fundraiser in Las Vegas. And you know, that is so customary, that is so common. It is the thing that every U.S. Senator does. And that’s something we love to do.”

She said her team goes out there to raise money “and we come back and we put it to the best use we know how to run the campaign.”

“I would much rather be with the cowboys, the cowgirls, the ag people raising money in Las Vegas than in an apartment in New York City with George Soros,” Hyde-Smith said of Colom, a reference to a fundraiser held for Colom by Alex Soros, the son and heir apparent of George Soros, last September.

Response from Voters

Hyde-Smith said the response on the campaign trail has been “very positive.”

“When you’ve been here eight years, you’ve had the opportunity to make a difference, you’ve had the opportunity to help a lot of people and you know, you’ve passed some bills and been part of bills that are really significant,” she said of stumping in Mississippi. “So I’ve enjoyed a great reception throughout the state.”

The Senator went on to say that she has enjoyed reuniting with people that she has met over her 20-plus years in public service.

“I cannot say enough about how well I believe I’ve been received, how I know I’ve been received very well in so many counties, and so many thank yous, so many people of gratitude saying you know we appreciate what you’re doing for the state and we’re just going to highlight that, we’re going stand on that and we’re going to enjoy the positivity and capitalize on the successes,” she said.

Relationship with President Trump, Mississippi Officials

President Trump has endorsed Hyde-Smith in each of her prior bids for the U.S. Senate. He did so again in early 2025, when he posted a full-throated endorsement of the Mississippi Senator in March 2025.

“Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith is 100% MAGA, and doing a fantastic job representing the Incredible People of Mississippi!” Trump wrote. “An Original Member of my Mississippi Leadership Team, Cindy has been with us from the very beginning. In the Senate, Cindy is fighting hard to Secure our Border, Grow the Economy, Champion our Amazing Farmers and American Agriculture, Support our Brave Military/Veterans, Promote Energy DOMINANCE, and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment.”

President Trump went on to say, “Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election – SHE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”

Of Trump’s support, Hyde-Smith said, “Obviously, he’s very popular in Mississippi and it certainly means a lot to me.”

“First of all, we’ve gotten a lot of things done because of him. You know, we saved a small hospital in Franklin County, Mississippi with his help,” she noted.

Hyde-Smith said she is “not one that calls him very often.”

“I make sure that I use that time with him very wisely and make sure that when you spend capital that it’s spent well and that you’re not one of those hanger- oners, but just one that wants to be his friend,” she said of her relationship with Trump. “And when I reach out and say, ‘Mr. President, this is what I need help on,’ he says, ‘Cindy, you know, I rarely hear from you.’ So, I enjoy this relationship that we have. I really do.”

She said the President “calls me more than I call him.”

“I just think that [our relationship] has benefited the state very well and the people of Mississippi know that,” the Senator added. “And my goodness, he’s done so many great things that are so positive that hard working people like the people in Mississippi are so grateful for and they recognize it, they appreciate it, and they like us being a team.”

Hyde-Smith’s re-election has also been backed by a myriad of state, federal Republican elected officials. Those endorsements include her fellow Mississippi Senator Wicker as well as the state’s three GOP Congressmen, Trent Kelly (MS-1), Michael Guest (MS-3) and Mike Ezell (MS-4).

On top of the federal level endorsements, Hyde-Smith has shared the support she has received from seven of the eight statewide elected officials along with 34 state senators and 73 state representatives, including Speaker of the House Jason White (R).

Yet, it is the endorsement by the people of Mississippi that most pleases her.

“When you have people willing to work for you and willing to get out in this heat and put up signs and willing to call their neighbors, willing to do fundraisers for you, that is the best feeling in the world,” she said. I’ve run a lot of campaigns. I’ve never lost a race because they’re not going to outwork me and I’m going to be here all day long doing what’s right just because it’s right.”

What Separates Her

Senator Hyde-Smith believes her experience serving Mississippi for over two decades is what separates her from her opponents.

“I have the experience. I have the legislative experience. I’ve run a state agency as a statewide elected official and obviously the governor respected that job that I had done there enough that he wanted to appoint me to the U.S. Senate,” she said.

She called herself “a fierce campaigner,” saying she is not afraid of tough subjects when meeting voters.

“I’m not afraid of the hard issues. I will walk in any room and talk to anyone about whatever it is that their concerns are,” Hyde-Smith said. “And I just think the other two candidates, they don’t have that background. They don’t have that proven track record. I just say, look at what I’ve done. Don’t just listen to what I say. Look at what I’ve done, look at what I’ve accomplished. And I’m proud of that record and I’m proud to have the connections that I do have in the state.”

The Senator currently serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Appropriations, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the Committee on Rules and Administration. She chairs both the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies subcommittee on Appropriations and the Subcommittee on Commodities, Derivatives, Risk Management, and Trade on Agriculture.

Top Issues on Her Mind

Senator Hyde-Smith spoke to a few topics that are top of mind for many Mississippians as she travels the state and continues to work in D.C.

Foreign Affairs and Affordability

Hyde-Smith expressed concern over foreign affairs, particularly as it pertains to the ongoing conflict with Iran and the competition with China.

“That’s a global issue, but it is something that I have to constantly support the President on keeping this country safe,” she said. “I mean, obviously Iran does not need to have nuclear weapons and there’s a price to pay to get to where we need to be to have a secure country. And that’s what it is, with the Strait of Hormuz, it has directly affected lives in Mississippi.”

Hyde-Smith said addressing the security concerns, namely in dealing with Iran, is something that must be done now, even if it creates temporary pain for consumers.

“We don’t want to wonder where we’re going be when we get the report that, yeah, a nuclear weapon has made it to this country,” she said. “The number one job as the President of the United States, the number one job as a U.S. Senator is to make sure we have a secure, safe country to raise our families in and that’s just priority.”

Senator Hyde-Smith believes “whatever it takes to get us there and the turmoil that it takes in these foreign affairs, we’ve got to be a part of it.”

“We have got to be looking ahead and I don’t want to deal with [a future] situation; I want to prevent the situation and that’s what we’re doing right now, literally today as we’re negotiating and we’re trying to find a path forward to secure that,” she added. “They do not need nuclear weapons.”

SAVE America Act

Hyde-Smith is a co-sponsor on the SAVE America Act, the federal legislation that seeks to implement national Voter ID standards and ensure illegal immigrants are not voting in U.S. elections. The measure has received strong support from President Trump.

“That’s the biggest no brainer in the entire world,” she said of the legislation that has been stalled in D.C. “We want secure elections and we daily have to battle those who do not want secure elections, who want to be able to literally, I’m just going put it out there, they want to be able to cheat and they’re very, very good at it.”

She continued by saying, “So, I’m 100% for the SAVE Act to try to get that past. And I just can’t believe it’s been so hard, but it has. There are forces up here that do not want that. And it’s because they want to be able to control elections instead of having elections that the people control.” 

Healthcare

The Senator was a strong supporter of the One Big Beautiful Bill that was signed into law last summer by President Trump. Her Democratic opponent contends that she “put politics over people and voted for the [Affordable Care Act] subsidies to go away” when supporting the measure.

Hyde-Smith, however, said healthcare, specifically rural healthcare is a top priority for her. She referred back to the efforts to save the Franklin County Hospital from closing.

The President signed a five-bill appropriations package in February that included language Hyde-Smith had inserted to reinstate the Critical Access Hospital designation for the Franklin County Hospital, which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rescinded in January. Without that designation, the hospital would have no longer been eligible for federal resources intended to help sustain the financial viability of rural hospitals and assure access to essential medical services.

“That hospital was literally about to close. It was for a Biden administration rule that would close two hospitals in the country and believe it or not, it was one in California and one in Meadville, Mississippi,” Hyde-Smith said. “So, that was one that literally I said we had 0.00 chance of getting that language in there and saving that hospital but we did. I never gave up on it.”

She said she will fight “every single day” for better healthcare outcomes for Mississippi.

“And you can say those things, but when you have accomplishments and you actually did it and you drive up to that hospital and every employee in that hospital comes on the outside and gets in front of the hospital clapping when you get out, you know, you realize, ‘Hey, we’re doing some things right up here,'” she said.

But challenges remain.

“I get calls all the time. Just got one yesterday. A guy down in Simpson County had an accident in his barn and they couldn’t get him in a hospital because they were on diversion and they were trying to find a place to get him there,” the Senator conveyed. “If daddy has a stroke in Wesson, can we get him to Saint Dominic? Can we get him to Baptist? Can we get him to University?”

She said the state’s nursing shortage is a factor in access to care, noting that “you can’t open up beds to have those rooms available because you don’t have the staff.”

Hyde-Smith also expressed concern with insurance, pharmaceutical drugs, and what she called “the biggest racket in the entire world” pharmacy benefit managers.

“I will stay here forever to get that [work on healthcare] done and I’m not a hanger-on here so I won’t be here when I’m Senator Grassley’s age,” she said. “But the importance of that, if we could get that one thing done for pharmaceutical drugs to bring the price down on that to where they should be and to take out the absolute unbelievable gouging of the American people. I am so committed to that. I will work night and day tirelessly. No one is going outwork me on these issues.”

Tax Provisions

Hyde-Smith touted the no tax on tips and overtime provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill.

“We have so many great Mississippians, great workers out there, whether they’re on a bucket truck as a lineman and they work so much overtime during storms that it really makes a difference,” she said.

Transportation

The Senator harkened back to her work on efforts to improve traffic flow in Mississippi, both for residents and truckers alike.

“I got language that really helped out log truck drivers, made such a big difference in their lives,” she said of a provision added to a Transportation-HUD Appropriations bill in April 2024.

“My entire life, I have seen these log trucks throughout Mississippi on two lane roads and it was just so dangerous and it was just something that we learned to live with,” Hyde-Smith said. “Being from rural Mississippi, being in the trucking business, my dad growing up in that, I was just keenly aware of what a huge difference that can make in the safety of Mississippians.”

The language in the bill allowed log trucks to return to interstate highways, abandoning the circuitous routes through cities and towns they had been forced to use. She also secured a provision to increase the weight limitations for certain agricultural vehicles on Mississippi interstates, lifting a prohibition that forced large trucks to operate only on state and county roads.

“And it wasn’t easy, but we got language in there that we could get them on safer highways,” the Senator said. “And you know, I have people all the time walk up to me and say thank you, thank you for making a difference there.”

Immigration

Hyde-Smith sees much work still to be done regarding immigration.

“Obviously, you know, we raise beef cattle. We’re in the agricultural world. And I have people calling all the time. I need these workers. I need H2A, I need H2B [visas]. The fact that the border was open for as long as it was and it has put us in the seriously dangerous position that it has is totally, I mean, I still cannot comprehend that,” she said.

Senator Hyde-Smith has visited the southern border many times during her tenure, talking with locals and immigration enforcement officials.

“The immigration reform needs to be done. I haven’t been here as long as many of the other Senators have been here, but I’m just not afraid of that issue,” she said. “We’ve got to have workers. We’ve got to know who you are. We’ve got to know where you are. And if you’re deportable, you’re just deportable. I don’t feel like that that’s being harsh. I feel like that that is being very firm on wanting to have a safe country.”

She said immigration reforms can be achieved in a way that allows U.S. business to benefit from workers who come into the country legally.

“Because of my agriculture background, I know the situation and we’ve got to have them, but we’re not where we need to be there,” Hyde-Smith said. “I can definitely see how we can get there. It’s like anything else in this town, you have to consistently, constantly work on it every single day.”

The Senator said she is “thrilled” that the southern border is secure now.

“I have a lot of confidence in that, but when you leave it open for four years and you deal with what that brought in, it’s pretty frustrating,” she said. “It’s a mess that we have. It’s a problem that we have, but none of us are going give up on trying to get it under control.”

Support of Her Family

Hyde-Smith said her family has been very supportive of her public service.

“We’ve been at this so long. My daughter literally was five weeks old when we started and she’s 27 now,” she said with a smile.

Yet, the negativity, “the mud, the dirt, the trash that Scott Colom is capable of bringing forward,” it is not easy, she said.

“It really isn’t. But they’re pretty tough,” the Senator said. “My family and I, we just get together. We pray together, we go to church together on Sunday and say, you know, we’ve got to have that nourishment. We got to have that spiritual healing to get us through this and that’s just who we are. It’s not the first time. Hopefully won’t be the last time that we just can go through this process.”

But she said “the punches are severe.”

“I’m not going to sugarcoat this. The punches are pretty severe when you get that early morning call and someone on the other line says, ‘Have you seen the latest thing? You know, you just, you get a knot in your stomach when that happens,” Hyde-Smith said. “But that’s part of getting here. That’s not the pretty part of getting to the U.S. Senate, but it’s the part that’s necessary. I think we’ve got our armor on and we’re ready to go.”

Why Hyde-Smith Believes She Will Win in November

Senator Hyde-Smith says people in Mississippi would not be supporting her if they were not pleased with the job that she is doing on their behalf.

“And that’s what it’s about. But we have to continue to make sure we have good schools, good education, good jobs, good transportation,” she said. “We have got to make sure the defense industry in Mississippi, it’s so important. We got to make sure that they are funded to the point that we can defend ourselves in this country. And I love the blue economy we have on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I love all of the military installations that we have throughout Mississippi. You know, so many people don’t look at us like that, but we got a lot of things going on. Keesler Air Force Base, I mean, you just name it. Meridian, the military presence there that we have.”

She said she is striving every day to do the work for the people of Mississippi, “concentrating on my job 100%,” while being very focused on winning the election.

“I know how to get out and campaign. I know how to make the most of the time that I have in the state and we’re just taking advantage of the good record,” Hyde-Smith said. “We want to continue to have a strong Mississippi with safe families, with good jobs and the freedoms that we’ve already been able to enjoy, we got to continue to protect that.”

The General Election is November 3. Absentee voting opens in September for those who cannot make it to the polls on Election Day.