The Library Media — National & World · The New Congressional Class
Scott Colom’s Election Makes Mississippi History as First Black Senator Chosen by Voters
By Eleanor Ever Loyal
Photo: Ben Ledbetter, Architect / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Scott Colom, a 43-year-old Democrat and longtime Mississippi prosecutor, will enter the U.S. Senate in January as the first Black senator elected directly by Mississippi voters and the first Democrat in more than four decades to win a Senate seat in the state.
Colom defeated Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in a closely contested election. The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday, November 11, after several days of counting. The result was certified November 13.
His victory carries historic significance in a state where nearly 37% of residents are Black, the highest proportion of any state in the country, according to a 2025 Census estimate. Mississippi has not sent a Black senator to Washington since Reconstruction-era senator Blanche Bruce, whose service ended in 1881.
A Mississippi political and family background
Colom is a seventh-generation Mississippian who was born and raised in Columbus. His parents were both lawyers. His mother, Dorothy Winston Colom, is a retired Chancery Court judge and was the first Black judge in her district’s court. His father, Wilbur Colom, is an attorney.
Colom graduated from Millsaps College in Jackson before earning his law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2009, graduating cum laude, according to the Mississippi Free Press and other biographical accounts.
His early experience included work outside the United States. He spent 16 months teaching English in rural Guyana through the World Teach Program. He also held internships with the prosecutorial office of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania and with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
After law school, he worked for the Mississippi Center for Justice and in his family’s law firm. He later held several local judicial and prosecutorial positions, including interim Justice Court judge in Lowndes County, municipal judge in Aberdeen and Columbus’s first Black city prosecutor.
In 2015, Colom won election as district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District, defeating a 30-year incumbent. He became the district’s first Black district attorney and took office in 2016. The district covers Oktibbeha, Lowndes, Noxubee and Clay counties. He remained in the position until his Senate election.
Prosecutorial record and judicial nomination
Colom’s district attorney’s office reports a 94% conviction rate. His tenure also drew attention for expanding pretrial diversion programs for nonviolent defendants, an approach that can allow eligible people to avoid traditional prosecution under specified conditions.
His office was involved in the case of Eddie Lee Howard, who was freed in 2021 after spending 26 years on death row. The case became one of the notable episodes of Colom’s prosecutorial career.
In October 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Colom to serve as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Mississippi. The nomination did not advance. Hyde-Smith, whom Colom later defeated, opposed his nomination, citing his positions on transgender athletes and claiming he had received funding from George Soros. Those were the objections Hyde-Smith stated to his judicial nomination.
Colom’s election now moves him from state-level prosecution into a national legislative role. His campaign emphasized healthcare access, employment, rising living costs and the difficulties facing rural communities. He is generally regarded as a moderate to center-left Democrat.
The Clarion Ledger reported that President Donald Trump praised Colom after his election. The victory also marks a shift in Mississippi’s Senate representation: Colom will be the first Democrat elected to a Senate seat in the state in more than 40 years.
A new role in a divided political landscape
Colom’s first major choices as a senator will include decisions about the direction of the incoming Democratic majority. A Senate leadership vote is scheduled for December 1, and Colom has not committed to supporting a candidate.
Asked about his position by MS NOW, he said: “I gotta know my options, and I’m not trying to be cute.”
The remark leaves his vote open as senators prepare to choose their leader ahead of the new Congress. His decision will come before he takes office, when the 120th Congress convenes in January 2027.
Colom is married to Nadia Colom, and they have two daughters. He is a lifelong member of Missionary Union Baptist Church in Columbus.
His path to the Senate has taken him through local courts, a district attorney’s office and an unsuccessful federal judicial nomination. In January, he will bring that Mississippi legal and political experience to a chamber where his election has already made history.
Eleanor Ever Loyal
National Desk, The Library Media
From The Library — the estate of our family.
