(Photo from Colom's Facebook page)
- Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Scott Colom visited with Magnolia Tribune for a wide-ranging interview this week to discuss his campaign as well as the issues Mississippians are talking about in this midterm election.
To hear Scott Colom tell it, his decision to run for U.S. Senate against Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican, did not come about from being recruited by Chuck Schumer or the Democratic Party.
“It wasn’t anything to do with D.C. Let me just say that straight off the bat,” Colom told Magnolia Tribune.
Colom sat for a wide-ranging interview this week to discuss his campaign. The Lowndes County District Attorney addressed the policy positions he has made a central part of his messaging as he travels the state, issues Colom believes Mississippi voters care about most.
Why He’s Running
Colom’s entrance in the race came last September after years of speculation that he was indeed the Mississippi Democratic Party’s chosen candidate to run against Hyde-Smith this cycle.
READ MORE: Democrats get their man: Colom’s entry in Mississippi U.S. Senate race has been years in the making
The independent running against both Colom and Hyde-Smith, Ty Pinkins, said as much when he left the Democratic Party after being urged to step aside to allow another candidate, presumably Colom, to take the lead in the midterm.
Colom said his desire to run for U.S. Senate grew out of being denied a hearing when he was nominated for a federal judicial post by former President Joe Biden (D).
“What happened is, you know, I’ve been DA up here 10 years. I was blessed to be elected when I was 32 years old and really proud of my record of service. I’ve got a 94% conviction rate, got a reputation for keeping the courtroom fair,” Colom said. “And, you know, I was honored to be nominated to be a federal judge.”
He said he received the support of Congressman Bennie Thompon (D), Senator Roger Wicker (R), Congressman Trent Kelly (R) and former Republican governors.
“So, I thought with all that, with all of the sheriffs and officials that supported me I thought there was a track record that would at least allow me to get a hearing,” Colom said.
Yet, it was Hyde-Smith who did not return a “blue slip” for Colom in 2023 after Biden nominated him for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. The “blue slip” process is a sign-off Senators have on district court nominees in their home states. Return the slip and the process moves forward. Choose not to return it and it is essentially a veto of the nominee by the Senator.
In a statement on why she did not support Colom’s nomination to the federal bench, Senator Hyde-Smith told Magnolia Tribune in 2023, “I will not return the blue slip on the nomination of Scott Colom to serve as a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Mississippi. I visited with the District Attorney recently, and I recognize that he is smart and well liked in his district. However, there are a number of concerns I have regarding his record. As someone with a strong interest in protecting the rights of girls and women, I am concerned about Scott Colom’s opposition to legislation to protect female athletes. The significant support his campaign received from George Soros also weighs heavily against his nomination in my view. I simply cannot support his nomination to serve on the federal bench in Mississippi for a lifetime.”
READ MORE: Senator Hyde-Smith won’t “blue slip” Colom’s judicial nomination
“What troubled me about it was it didn’t matter what any of the people in Mississippi said. It didn’t matter if Republicans supported my nomination,” Colom said. “Our junior Senator just decided she wasn’t even going to let me have a hearing.”
He said “it was easy for me to forgive her as a Christian.”
“That really was easy for me. I deal with victims that have to forgive people who’ve done much, much worse,” Colom continued. “But it did make me look at her record. So, I said, you know, it’s interesting she would go against all these people in Mississippi. Let me look at her record and I realized that she has been terrible for Mississippi.”
From votes against the federal infrastructure bill to funding on bills that impact the state, Colom contends Hyde-Smith has a record of not properly serving Mississippians. He also takes issue with the incumbent not holding town halls and answering questions from voters.
“I just know that we’re the type of state that has to have a Senator that focuses on us,” Colom said. “That was why I ran.”
Colom’s Experience
Colom does not have legislative experience at any level. Before Hyde-Smith was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Senator Thad Cochran (R), she had served in the Legislature and was the state’s Agriculture Commissioner.
Colom, however, does not view his lack of legislative chops as an issue in this election.
“I think it’s actually helpful in this particular moment and I’ll tell you the first reason is as a District Attorney you’re not a partisan person,” he said. “You don’t ask whether your victims, what political party they’re in. You don’t care about whether your defendants are in the same party as you. You follow the facts. You follow the law, you do justice. So that’s the first thing that I think really is helpful to me, because that’s the training I’ve gotten.”
Colom said his family’s values and ties to Mississippi’s political scene are a plus for his candidacy.
“My mom was a judge for a long period of time. She taught me that you got to put people over politics. You got to do what’s right for families and for the community,” he said. “My dad was a Republican for a long time and worked with both Republicans and Democrats to try to make our state better and so those are the values I have and so I think that is important in this particular moment because we’re in a moment right now where we’re having record levels of corruption.”
In 2015, Colom ousted a nearly 30-year incumbent to win the District Attorney seat in the 16th Circuit Court District. He went on to run unopposed in his 2019 re-election bid and defeated a Republican challenger in 2023 to secure his third term.
Running as a Democrat in Mississippi
Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since John Stennis was re-elected in 1982. Colom welcomes that challenge in this 2026 midterm election.
“I’m just a commonsense Democrat with Mississippi values. I’m a 7th generation Mississippian,” he said. “As I said, I learned my values from my parents, not a political party. And I have a lot, you know, as a DA, I’m strong on the Second Amendment. I own guns. I understand the importance of protecting myself and my family, and I’ll protect every Mississippi’s right to do that.”
Colom said he believes in a secure border and understands what happens when people are in the U.S. illegally and commit crimes.
“I’ve had to prosecute people for that so I understand that importance, but I also understand what working Mississippians need,” he said.
Colom said his campaign has momentum. He believes that fueled by a willingness to campaign all across the state.
“I’ve been to counties that traditionally vote Republican and have great responses. You can look at my social media videos and see me talking to, you know, every type of Mississippian, every, you know, age group, every type, right? Because I’m a big believer in the state that I love,” he said. “Mississippi has been good to me. I believe that the state deserves great leadership. And so, because of that, you look at what we did in the turn out in the primary. We increased turnout by 90%.”
That statistic is in question, in that the 2026 Democratic Primary drew nearly 151,000 voters, with Colom receiving just under 80% of the vote. By comparison, the 2024 Democratic Primary drew roughly 92,000 while 2023 saw just under 200,000 voters in the primary.
Even still, Colom says internal polling “has us within the margin of error.” Yet, that too is debatable given the recent history of polling in U.S. Senate races in Mississippi. In the 2018 special election, then-Democrat standard bearer Mike Espy touted that he was within one point of Hyde-Smith just weeks before the election. But when the votes came in, Hyde-Smith won by seven points.
Colom said his confidence comes from putting people over politics in this campaign, because “the vast majority of Mississippians love our state more than they love a political party or hate a political party.”
“They want somebody that’s going to be honest, transparent, that’s going to tell them what they think, listen to their concerns, and do what they think is best for the state,” he said.
Even still, Colom is not shying away from attaching himself to the more progressive side of his party. In October 2025, Colom attended a ‘No Kings’ protest in Jackson sporting a “Mississippi Matters” hat.
The nationwide events are organized by a vast network of progressive organizations that partnered under the banner of ‘No Kings’ to host protests against President Trump. Many protestors at the events wave signs calling the President a “fascist” and comparing Trump to Hitler. The views of protestors at the events run the gamut of leftwing talking points, ranging from chants of “Free Palestine” to wanting to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in favor of open borders to pushing LGBTQIA+ and trans acceptance.
Partners in the protests include Black Lives Matter, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, anti-capitalist advocates, democratic socialist groups, labor and teacher unions, and other progressive organizations and fundraising arms of the Democratic Party. Notably, Soros’ Open Society has been tied to the operational funding behind the groups organizing the ‘No Kings’ protests. FoxNews reported that “the Open Society Foundation has awarded $7.61 million in grants to the group behind the ‘No Kings’ protest.” FoxNews identified that group receiving the grants as Indivisible.
Colom’s Case Against Hyde-Smith
Colom did not pull punches when making his case against the incumbent.
“What our junior Senator is doing, is she’s using her political party to cover up the fact that she’s failing Mississippi,” he said. “The healthcare cuts. Prices being too high. Hospitals closing. Grocery prices up, gas prices up, and then she will not campaign. She doesn’t do it. She hasn’t done a town hall in six years. She hardly does any interviews. She’s truly absent in our state. Is it because she doesn’t want to have to answer for these failed policies? I think we got to have somebody to put Mississippi first.”
He ties Hyde-Smith to President Donald Trump (R), who has endorsed her re-election campaign.
“I mean, if you look at the crypto money that our president made, $1.4 billion in crypto in one year, you look at our junior Senator voting to allow that type of corruption to happen,” Colom alleges, adding that Hyde-Smith voted “against a ban on stock trading that would have prevent people in politics from using inside information that you and I would never have to make money. She voted against that. That’s the type of corruption that’s ruining our politics.”
Colom is referring to a committee vote by Hyde-Smith on a proposed amendment that was ruled to be not germane to the measure at hand. The U.S. Senate Rules and Administration Committee met in December to consider S. Res. 526, a resolution meant to withhold the pay of Senators if a government shutdown occurs. It was authored by Louisiana Senator John Kennedy (R). During the committee meeting, two Democrat Senators offered amendments to the resolution, both of which were tabled by straight party line votes as they were determined by the chair not to be germane to the measure under consideration. Such “show votes” are common as members of one party attempt to pigeonhole those in the opposite party on an issue to “put them on record.”
READ MORE: Hyde-Smith opponents use committee vote as fodder on campaign trail
Colom also takes issue with Hyde-Smith’s campaign fundraising, pointing to a fundraising trip to Las Vegas “with lobbyists, corporate money to stay at nice hotels and eat at nice restaurants.”
“You look at her taking money from fertilizer companies that are under investigation for price fixing,” he added.
Colom further contends that the state’s junior Senator “put politics over people and voted for the [Affordable Care Act] subsidies to go away.” He says that means hundreds of thousands of Mississippians will not have access to health insurance.
“The biggest Medicaid cuts we’ve had in our country’s history coming I think next year and you’re going to have, you know, more Mississippians are going to lose health insurance, hospitals closing,” Colom added. “That’s putting politics over people and it’s having really negative effects on our state.”
He said Mississippi needs leadership that is rooted in standing up to corruption and putting people over politics.
“Somebody that is going to actually look out for Mississippi, not for D.C.,” Colom said.
Colom’s Fundraising
It is well documents that Colom has taken significant money from the liberal financier George Soros, his family and his related political committees.
In 2015, Soros was the sole reported donor to the Mississippi Safety & Justice PAC. That PAC made over $700,000 in expenditures in support of Colom’s bid for District Attorney during this first campaign, according to paperwork filed with the Secretary of State.
Then, after his announced run for U.S. Senate in September 2025, Alex Soros, the son and heir apparent of George Soros’ sprawling political empire, hosted a New York fundraiser.
Colom has repeatedly sought to distance himself from the donations. He did so again this week.
“I’ve got a record. I’ve been DA 10 years. I’ve tried 35 jury trials. I’ve made thousands of difficult decisions,” he said. “And no decision I’ve ever made has been influenced by anybody that donated to my campaign, anybody that volunteered on my campaign. I’ve always done what I thought was right for the community, for the people of Mississippi. That’s why I continue to get reelected. I’ve only grown my support.”
Colom pointed to Hyde-Smith also taking out-of-state money, what he called, “corporate money, lobbyist money.”
“She’s hardly raised any money from Mississippi. I got money from all 82 counties. I got donations from all 82 counties, most of them small dollars,” Colom argued. “She has very, very few dollars that she got from Mississippi. It’s all outside of Mississippi money. And I understand why they’re giving her the money, the people in New York, she’s done more for the billionaires in New York than I ever had. She cut that their taxes [in the One Big Beautiful Bill].”
When asked what he would say to Mississippians concerned about his taking donations from the likes of Soros, Colom said he would point to his record.
“Look at my values, look at what I’m running on. What I’m running on is making everybody’s life in Mississippi better. Higher wages, lower costs, save our healthcare, save our hospitals,” he said. “I’ve got commonsense Mississippi values on the border, on the 2nd Amendment. I’ve got a record that you can look at and say nobody ever told me what to do. I do what I think is right, based on the facts, based on the law, based on the community. And that’s what I’m running on. I’m running on putting Mississippi first.”
Colom has also benefited from a Democrat-aligned super PAC ad campaign being deployed ahead of the November midterms targeting House and Senate races in traditionally safe Republican areas, including in Mississippi.
The American Bridge 21st Century super PAC touts itself as “the largest research, tracking, and rapid response operation in the Democratic Party.” The group’s $50 million ad campaign, of which Colom’s campaign is a part, is the group’s largest midterm paid media effort to date. It will feature local storytellers sharing firsthand accounts of rising costs due to Trump’s tariffs and Iran War, health care challenges including rising costs and Medicaid cuts, and other economic pressures.
Talking Issues
Colom addressed a variety of issues that are in the news during the interview with Magnolia Tribune.
SAVE America Act
President Trump and congressional Republicans, including Senator Hyde-Smith, are pushing for the SAVE America Act to impose national Voter ID standards and ensure illegal immigrants are not voting in U.S. elections.
Colom said of the legislation, “We have Voter ID in Mississippi and, you know, I think it works well. I think we have to, my position is everybody needs to get access to a free ID very easily. You know, I do think that we need to make sure we have secure elections, but the best way to do is make sure everybody has access to an ID without cost.”
He said he supports certain parts of the SAVE America Act bill, such as having an ID for voting.
“There’s other parts that I would need to study more to make sure they are actually beneficial to Mississippi and make sure that the polls are are still available to people,” he said.
Border Security
While Colom said he supports a “strong, secure border,” he said, “We also have to have due process.”
“As a District Attorney, I can tell you how important it is that every citizen or everybody has the same, you know, due process that the constitution guarantees, so that’s my position on it,” he said.
This points to a larger debate across the nation centered on if illegal immigrants who enter the country are entitled to due process under U.S. laws.
National Defense
Colom said he “absolutely supports national defense.”
“You know, my position is that we’ve got to make sure not only that our border is secure, but our country is prepared to defend itself and our allies that are threatened,” he said.
He pointed to the need to ensure defense contractors in Mississippi, like Ingalls Shipbuilding, have the resources necessary to fulfill their service to the nation, while also supporting military bases in the state, such as Columbus Air Force Base.
“That’s been a tremendous asset to our area. But we got to make sure that our support for defense is bipartisan. We can’t allow that to be a political issue. That has to be an issue about people,” Colom said.
Healthcare
Colom said he wants to work with Senators like Josh Hawley (R) to rollback the healthcare cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
“If you listen to him, he’s talking about the need to cancel healthcare cuts because it’s going to cost too many working people, working Mississippians to lose health insurance. And that’s going to be horrible for our state,” Colom said, pointing to a projection from the state insurance department that upwards of 400,000 Mississippians will not have access to health insurance due to the federal cuts.
He believes Mississippi is missing the boat on receiving more federal money by not expanding Medicaid, an issue Governor Tate Reeves (R) has actively opposed his entire time in office.
Lawmakers attempted to find common ground on Medicaid expansion in prior legislative sessions but the votes in the Republican majority Legislature have not been there to buck the governor.
“It’s a good deal for Mississippi. It gives people health insurance. It helps our hospitals get the money they need because the alternative is uncompensated care, because people don’t stop getting sick,” Colom said. “That’s the thing that we ignore when people don’t have insurance, they don’t stop getting sick. They wait longer to get care. When they go to the hospital, you know, they can’t pay for it. The costs are too high. Then it’s uncompensated care, which causes hospitals to lose doctors, lose nurses, and that’s why all the projections are terrible for Mississippi as a result of these cuts.”
Colom noted the challenges faced at Greenwood-Leflore Hospital as an example.
“The only reason it’s at risk of closing is because we didn’t expand Medicaid,” he claimed. “We turned down federal dollars that would have benefited not all people with insurance, but the hospitals and the economy for political reasons. We got to go back to making sure we put people over politics.”
Colom has previously stated his support for a tax increase on high-income earners to allow Mississippians to have health insurance and save state hospitals.
“We have to cancel the health care cuts. We have to raise taxes 3 percent on people making more than $600,000 a year to pay for Mississippians to continue to have health insurance, and to save our hospitals,” he said in November 2025.
Middle East Conflict
When it comes to global conflicts, Colom said, “We got to focus here on America and Mississippi.”
“We need to make sure we support our allies, but we have to do so in a way that supports America first,” he said.
He takes issue with Hyde-Smith not holding town halls so people can voice their concerns about the war with Iran, the costs, and the risks.
Tariffs and Consumer Costs
Colom believes consumer costs are too high, and he lays much of the blame at the feet of President Trump’s tariffs.
“We got to get our voice back on tariffs,” Colom said of Hyde-Smith’s support of Trump. “The conservative position is low tariffs. Our junior Senator used to be a free trader. She only became a protectionist because the person in D.C. changed.”
He said tariffs are a tax, and that Mississippi needs someone “up there fighting for low cost, low tariffs that makes sense for Mississippi, makes sense for our farmers, makes sense for our small businesses, makes sense for consumers.”
Minimum Wage
Colom is advocating for an increase in the national minimum wage.
“We got to raise the minimum wage. We haven’t raised it, it’s $7.25,” he said. “That’s wrong.”
He said the minimum wage is too low.
“I will fight to raise the minimum wage,” Colom said. “I’m a capitalist. One of the few things government can do to increase wages is to raise the floor. And so, I think it’s time we raise the floor.”
Teachers and Police Officers
Colom is also pushing for teachers and police officers to pay no federal income tax.
“Those are professions under $75,000,” he said. “Those are professions that do a public service to build a community. They’re very important.”
He said Mississippi “is losing too many teachers and cops to other states that pay more.”
“We got to have some incentives to keep them in Mississippi,” Colom urged.
Boys in Girls’ Sports
One of the reasons Hyde-Smith gave for not supporting Colom’s federal judge nomination was his “opposition to legislation to protect female athletes.” That was based on Colom signing on to a joint statement of “prosecutors and law enforcement leaders” who condemned “the criminalization of transgender people and gender-affirming care.”
The statement shown below from 2021 lists Colom as a signer, along with now disgraced Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, then DA Shameca Collins from Natchez, and others from around the country including New York Attorney General Letitia James.
However, Colom told Magnolia Tribune this 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 said Hyde-Smith “has lied about it on me consistently.”
“I got two daughters. I coached their soccer team. It was an all girls soccer team… I am a big believer in girls’ sports,” Colom said. “The reality is the reason she keeps lying about that is because she knows she has a terrible record to run on.”
Colom said as he has campaigned from the Coast to Corinth, “Nobody has ever told me that’s what matters to them. Nobody’s brought that up. Not one person.”
“What they care about, what the voters of Mississippi care about, they care about wages, jobs, prices, healthcare, security, the border. I mean, those are things Mississippians care about and those are things that I’m running on,” Colom said.
Senate Committees
Colom said he would seek to serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Agriculture Committee if he is elected to the U.S. Senate.
“Those would be the two I would say first. You know, our senior Senator is on Armed Services so he’s got a big voice there, so I would try to get on those two, those would be the first two,” Colom said.
He knows it could be difficult to get a seat on Appropriations, but he said both committees, as well the transportation subcommittee, are important to Mississippi.
Senator Hyde-Smith currently sits on both the Appropriations and Agricultural Committees, as well as Rules and Administration and Energy. She is 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.
Family and Future
The Democratic nominee said he is blessed to have a very supportive wife and two young daughters. He talks of them all fondly and holds them close.
“I try to be, I was very active in their life. I coached their soccer teams,” Colom said. “I’m not coaching this year, but you know, they’re doing very well. I’m blessed to have a lot of family in my area that can be present when I’m out campaigning because I do have to campaign a lot.”
If he does not win in November, there has been talk in Capitol circles that the Mississippi Democratic Party may recruit him to run for a statewide office in 2027. Colom dismissed that notion with a chuckle when asked if that prospect was on his radar.
“Not at all. It’s so funny,” Colom said with a smile. “That hasn’t even crossed my mind. I’m only thinking about doing everything in my power to win this election, and I think we’re going to shock a lot of people. I think we have a really good chance to win. I’m certainly going to give it everything I’ve got.”
The General Election is November 3. Absentee voting opens in September for those who cannot make it to the polls on Election Day.
