The United States Senate race in Mississippi remains too close to call on Thursday, with Democrat Scott Colom leading Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by fewer than 50 votes in one of the most surprising contests of the midterm elections.
According to the BBC, Colom led Hyde-Smith by fewer than 50 votes, with approximately 96 percent of the estimated vote counted by Wednesday morning. The Associated Press lists the race as too early to call, with 99.83 percent of precincts reporting. Another tally put the lead at 1,138 votes, underlining how fluid the count remains.
Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982, so a Colom victory would be a historic upset. Democrats have already flipped at least seven Senate seats, in Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to NewsNation.
Why the count is so tight
The closeness of the race caught many forecasters by surprise. Hyde-Smith, the incumbent, was expected to hold the seat comfortably in a state that has voted Republican for decades. Instead, the contest has come down to a handful of votes, with the final result depending on the last ballots to be counted.
According to reports, the two outstanding Senate races, in Mississippi and Alaska, will determine the final composition of the chamber when the new Congress convenes in January. Democrats already hold a 54-seat majority, so the Mississippi result will not change control, but it will shape the size of that majority.
What happens next
Election officials in Mississippi will continue counting and verifying ballots before any result can be certified. If the margin stays this narrow, a recount is likely, and both campaigns will be watching every remaining vote.
For Democrats, a win in Mississippi would cap a remarkable night. For Republicans, losing a seat they have held for more than four decades would deepen the sense of a party in crisis after the midterm defeat.
