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.
Since reconstruction.
Since reconstruction.
Just a reminder that this historic win is in spite of the widespread and varied voter suppression tactics, gerrymandering, and other measures Republicans have installed in Southern states to keep themselves in power.
If this were a state with no gerrymanders, enough local polling places and voting machines and open hours and fair voter ID laws and strong ballot and election processes ensuring that ALL its citizens could vote, this win would not be by such a fine margin.
It would be a landslide.
In-state Gerrymander doesn’t matter for the Senate, but otherwise 100% agreed.
It contributes to voter suppression by discouraging voting because of all the other races beibg stacked.
Very true, thanks for pointing it out. If I’d thought about it for two more seconds I might have gotten there, lol.
But I think I included it just because gerrymanders tend to decrease turnout in general: if you know your district is going to vote red no matter what, then why bother? But Mississippi voters came out anyway.
Mississippi Goddamn! (I do think even Nina Simone would be pleased.) Well done!
Congratulations and the best of luck to Mississippi Senator-elect Scott Colom!
This is huge.
So proud of Mississippi, you all did so good against horrible tactics to tip the favor red.
are we tackling the tactics? the fight has only begun…
In the context of the vote? Yes. This is a clear victory over those tactics, which are so absolutely awful in Mississippi that its constant legal battles on multiple fronts.
I was born in Pascagoula. I think of myself as Texan because I have one single memory of Mississippi before we moved to Texas, before my 3rd birthday. But I still have family there.
…Family I’ve had to block after they threatened “we have the guns and know where you liberals live”, mind. I love Natchez where I have family… or at least, I used to love until I couldn’t take the racism and tea party bullshit. I’ve mourned the loss of that part of my history since.
I don’t feel like I have my state back, but I am proud of what Mississippi has accomplished this election cycle. And let’s be frank, it was the blacks. Thank you, my fellow Americans - my real Americans. I want to be, like, slightly racial (not racist) and say - hey, I liked Obama as President. I’m happy to have more blacks representing us. And more latino/latina, more from all over who are American like me. <3 <3 <3
(now, just ignore the stupid religious text on there)
Thank god for Mississippi
Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d read here.
It’s a common joke in the US, at least in the south. Sort of a “we would be the worst in the nation at [education | poverty | worker’s rights | etc.] if Mississippi weren’t setting the bar so low” kind of thing.
Damn, that’s brutal. Sorry for picking on you Mississippi, the reasons your government sucks are complicated and difficult to solve, largely because the power structures are so well entrenched at this point. It’s a similar situation up here in TN. I know a lot of y’all are cool. Apparently, as of recently, just over half :)
It’s brutal, but note that throughout the article, particularly in terms of education, the only path forward for Mississippi is up.
And they’ve seriously improved on education. Once you do that, the other things start to fall in place. Think about it like this: if you were 5 at the start of the Mississippi Miracle, you might have just cast your first vote for a US senator.
Educated voters consistently vote left.
That’s cool. Makes me hopeful that we can pull off something similar. Now we got GA, TX, KY, the carolinas, and MS making us look bad. We gotta get with the program.
Half the reason I said it is because this is the first time I’ve been able to say it without the snark in my life
Internet friends, what is the black population of Mississippi? Why hasn’t this happened in 150 years? It isn’t the black population…
About 40% of Mississippi’s people are black, though I would suspect they make up a smaller percentage of Mississippi’s registered voters
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.
Not coincidentally, 150 years ago is about when the union army ended the last of its occupation of the southern states.
🎉 🥳 🎈 🎈 🎈 🥂 Woo hoo!
This will be fun in the next election’s primaries, when neolibs are trying to tell us who can and can’t win an election, especially in the South.
Splish splosh
