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By Anna Skinner
Associate News Editor
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Less than 2,000 votes separate Democrat Scott Colom and Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in the race for a Mississippi U.S. Senate seat, and questions are mounting about whether a recount could determine the winner. But unlike nearly every other state, Mississippi has no recount process, leaving election challenges to be fought through litigation.
The race still hasn’t been called two days after the midterm elections that saw a blue wave sweep congressional, gubernatorial and statewide races across the country. Democrats won control of the U.S. Senate and House, with several surprising flips in traditionally Republican states contributing to the result, such as Democrat James Talarico winning Texas’ U.S. Senate seat, and Democrat Annie Andrews winning South Carolina’s.
In Mississippi, as of early Thursday afternoon, Colom led by 1,724 votes, about one-tenth of a percentage point, according to the Associated Press. Roughly 95 percent of the votes have been tallied. The close race is unusual for Mississippi, which hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1982, when John Stennis was reelected. President Donald Trump won the state in all three of his campaigns, including by more than 20 points over Kamala Harris in 2024. Trump endorsed Hyde-Smith and rallied with her ahead of the midterms.
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Mississippi Election Law Explained
While the narrow margin might trigger a recount elsewhere in the U.S., Mississippi does not have a recount procedure. State law allows a candidate to examine ballots, and while those results could act as evidence to support a claim, it is equivalent to public records access and does not count as a state-sanctioned recount, Michael Morley, the faculty director of Florida State University’s Election Law Center, told Newsweek on Thursday.
Should a candidate contest the results of the Mississippi race, they have two paths forward: appeal to the U.S. Senate or attempt to get their case heard by the federal court.
“Ultimately, at the end of the day, no matter who gets certified as the winner, no matter what a court says about it, the U.S. Constitution says the Senate itself is the ultimate judge,” Morley said. “Even if state officials wind up certifying one of the candidates as the winner, the other could ask the Senate to decline the seat to that person.”
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The U.S. Senate would then conduct its own recount, which would be done by the new Senate taking office in January, Morley said, which will have a Democratic majority.
The contest could also be brought before federal court, but there are challenges to that pursuit.
“To get into federal court, it wouldn’t be enough just to say the results are erroneous or some sort of ‘garden variety’ problem happened here,” Morley said. “In order to bring a federal challenge, a candidate would have to show a violation of a federal right [such as an equal protection violation or due process violation].
“That is a very high hurdle to overcome. There are numerous examples of federal courts saying, ‘We don’t get involved in garden-variety election disputes.’ Just arguing state law was violated or the tally was erroneous or mistakes were made or administrative problems arose, those sorts of things—even though serious enough to affect the outcome—those don’t rise to the level of federal due process violations to let a federal court get involved.”
Either process, whether through the Senate or the federal courts, could take months to resolve. In the meantime, the Senate might swear in the certified winner until the contest is sorted. In some cases, the seat might be left vacant, a “more extreme” possibility Morley noted, and one that would likely occur only if there was a “reasonably strong likelihood” that the result would be in favor of the candidate contesting the results.
“In both cases, it could take a long time to play out,” Morley said.
When asked whether he thought Colom or Hyde-Smith would pursue such efforts, Morley said it depends on whether they think they have solid legal arguments and what their persuasive evidence is. Regardless, even in states with recount laws, it is “extremely rare for a formal recount to change the outcome of an election,” Morley said.
Of the 37 completed statewide recounts held between 2000 and 2025, only three resulted in reversals, a report by Fair Vote said.
*“*Partial recounts are more common: Recounts often stop before they’re completed, usually when the losing candidate concedes,” the report said. “All three reversals occurred when the initial margin was less than 0.06% of all votes cast for the top two candidates. The last statewide recount reversal was the 2008 U.S. Senate race in Minnesota.”
What Have Candidates Said
Colom has remained active on social media this week and said multiple times that his campaign would fight to ensure every lawful ballot was counted.
“I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for my campaign as we fight to make sure every lawful ballot is counted,” he posted on X on Thursday. “We saw historic voter turnout in this election across Mississippi and showed the country that Mississippi Matters — in large part due to the support of my day one team who has been with me all along. My campaign, alongside the DSCC and Elias Law Group, Lisa Ross, and our great team of local attorneys, are leading the effort to ensure every eligible voter is heard and I am confident that when votes are counted, we will flip this seat.”
Hyde-Smith has been silent on X since Election Day, when she shared that she cast her ballot. Her campaign manager, Jake Monssen, posted an update on her campaign’s Facebook page on Wednesday.
“Mississippians turned out in strong numbers yesterday, and the race for U.S. Senate remains extremely close as counting continues,” the post said. “With the vast majority of Election Day ballots reported, the margin is measured in just dozens of votes. We have thousands of outstanding ballots, including affidavit and absentee ballots, which still must be processed and verified under Mississippi law.”
The post went on to say that Hyde-Smith’s campaign is “closely monitoring the remaining count.”
“We remain confident that when every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted, Mississippians will have reelected Cindy Hyde-Smith,” the post said, before going on to thank the voters and election workers.
Final Result Could Still Be Days Away
Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson issued an update on the state’s election process on Wednesday, saying that final results could still be days away.
“Since Mississippi is a bottom-up state, circuit clerks and election commissioners run elections at the county level,” Watson said in the statement. “While not required, 70 of the 82 counties have uploaded their unofficial results through the Statewide Election Management System. Counties have 10 days from the date of the election to submit their certified results to our office, which is November 13.”
He added that there are 3,600 outstanding absentee ballots that must be received, and an “unknown number” of affidavit ballots that will be processed within the same 10 days counties have to certify their results.
“Until we have the certified results, the individual counties will be the best source of the latest and most up-to-date information,” the statement said.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Anna Skinner and Dave Siminoff.
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