Hyde-Smith, Adlakha Republican Primary for U.S. Senate could impact general election

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• Sarah Adlakha is a political newcomer challenging a Trump-endorsed incumbent, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, in Tuesday’s Republican Primary. Can she pull off the improbable? Unlikely, but her campaign could impact November.

Sarah Adlakha, an Illinois native, moved to Mississippi thirteen years ago. She registered to vote here for the first time in 2024, before the general election. Now she’s attempting to unseat incumbent U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in Tuesday’s March 10th Republican Primary.

The likelihood of her success is small. It’s difficult to knock off a sitting Senator, particularly when a challenger starts with low name identification and a substantial campaign cash deficit.

The more likely effect is that Adlakha caused Hyde-Smith to expend funds and energy that would have otherwise been devoted to the general election contest, while introducing lines of attack that could impact November.

In view of that handicapping, some Republican insiders have speculated that Adlakha is a “Democratic plant” or “coordinating” with Hyde-Smith’s likely Democratic opponent, Scott Colom.

They point to Adlakha’s lack of involvement in Republican politics prior to declaring as a candidate in 2025, her open opposition to a GOP-endorsed mayoral candidate on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, past praise of Kamala Harris, and synchronized messaging with the Colom campaign.

Prior to running for Senate, Adlakha’s political experience in Mississippi was limited to supporting Independent Casey Vaughn for Mayor of Gautier over his Republican challenger Phil Torjusen in 2025. Vaughn, the incumbent, won re-election. Adlakha has explained that her support of Vaughn was not ideological, but based on local politics, driven partially by difficulty she faced in her own business with government bureaucracy.

Following the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2020, Adlakha posted to social: “You don’t have to like her politics – or anything about her – to recognize the significance of this moment. There are a lot of little girls out there dreaming big today. As a mom of Indian daughters, this moment is pretty special. We have our first female Vice President. A black woman. An Indian woman. An American woman.”

Adlakha has said, in response to the criticism, that she did not vote for Harris and does not agree with her ideology, but was expressing a thought about what it meant to her daughters to see a woman with Indian heritage succeed.

More recently, Adlakha and Colom posted an identical graphic, in quick succession, questioning Senator Hyde-Smith’s efficacy.

Adlakha’s campaign has been tech savvy, building a strong social media presence. She’s been aided in recent days by a text messaging campaign launched by New Southern Majority, a Democrat aligned Super PAC, that has picked up on some of Adlakha’s allegations of corruption. New Southern Majority is dedicated to turning the South “blue” by electing progressive candidates.

A psychiatrist by training, Adlakha retired to help her husband, Dr. Satjit Adlakha, to open and run a cardiology clinic, as well as real estate development business. She also is an author, having written fictional works that include She Wouldn’t Change a Thing and Midnight on the Marne. Adlakha’s husband has been the subject of some recent controversy, with a former female employee, Juli Farr, alleging in a lawsuit filed in January of this year that Dr. Satjit sexually harassed her.

The thing that makes candidates like Adlakha intriguing is often their outsider status, particularly as Americans increasingly feel like Washington is broken. Voters just don’t know what they are going to get when they roll those dice.

By contrast, voters do know what they get with a candidate like Hyde-Smith. She’s been a reliable vote with Republican leadership, and because of her background both as a farmer and as Commissioner of Agriculture, somewhat of a Trump-whisperer on matters related to farming. Farming continues to be one of Mississippi’s leading industries.

Trump has endorse Hyde-Smith’s campaign and routinely praised her leadership. In his endorsement announcement, the President said:

“Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith is 100% MAGA, and doing a fantastic job representing the Incredible People of Mississippi! 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.”