Scott Colom, the Democratic challenger for a Mississippi Senate seat, appeared at Crossroads Arena in Corinth on Monday as Donald Trump arrived to rally support for his Republican opponent, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. Colom, a local prosecutor and district attorney from Columbus, said he planned to listen to what Trump supporters had on their minds. If elected, he would become Mississippi’s first Black senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction.
Trump’s voice was audibly hoarse as he addressed the crowd. His speech was interrupted by a heckler who shouted, “Shove that ballroom up your ass!” in an apparent reference to the president’s White House ballroom project.
The president had come to bolster Hyde-Smith, who is seeking her second full term against Colom. “I'm here because Cindy's doing great, but I just got to make sure. I can't take a chance,” Trump said.
He assailed Colom from the stage, calling him a “Marxist radical” and “fake” and a “shameless phony who pretends to be a moderate”.
The need for presidential attention reflects a closer contest than Mississippi’s recent electoral history would suggest. The state is among the nation’s most reliably Republican, and Trump has won it three times by an average of nearly 20 percentage points.
Democrats have not carried Mississippi since John Stennis won his last reelection in 1982. Mississippians have not chosen a new Democratic senator since 1947.
Yet Trump’s approval rating in the state has fallen to its lowest level of either term. Civiqs’ rolling tracker, as of 21 October, put his approval at 41 percent and disapproval at 52 percent, for a net rating of -11.
Voter discontent over inflation, the Iran war and other aspects of Trump’s second presidency has widened the House and Senate battleground maps.
Democrats have put resources behind Colom’s campaign. Their Senate super PAC made a late $1.2 million investment in the Mississippi contest, while former Vice President Kamala Harris travelled to the state on Thursday to raise his profile. Colom has outpaced Hyde-Smith in fundraising since launching his campaign last year.
A 365 Project poll conducted by Change Research on 21-22 October put Hyde-Smith at 43 percent and Colom at 40 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The Cook Political Report moved the contest from Solid Republican to Likely Republican last week.
Hyde-Smith’s earlier performance also showed a gap with Trump’s standing. In 2020, she won her first full term by 10 points while Trump carried Mississippi by more than 16, a 6-point gap.
More than 30 million voters had already cast ballots as Trump took the stage, with one week of campaigning left before the election.
The Mississippi rally opened a week of aggressive campaigning for Trump that will also take him to Texas, South Carolina and Iowa.
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