Scott Collom won the hotly contested U.S. Senate race in Mississippi on Wednesday, defeating incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith to give the Magnolia State its first Black senator in the upper chamber of Congress since 1881.
The Associated Press called the race for Collom, 43, a Democrat who became the first Black U.S. senator to be elected by popular vote and the third overall. The first two -- Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce -- were Republicans and were chosen by the state Legislature during the 1870s.
“All I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this,” Colom told a crowd of supporters who gathered at Tougaloo College for his victory party, according to the AP. “I had the courage to believe in Mississippi. I had the courage to understand that we can show the country that Mississippi matters.
“God didn’t want us to get it the easy way. He wanted us to get it the Mississippi way.”
Collom also becomes the first Democrat from Mississippi to be elected to the Senate since 1982, when John Stennis won reelection.
Hyde-Smith, 67 called Collom to concede the race late Wednesday afternoon, officially announcing her concession in a video she posted to social media, The New York Times reported.
“While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters,” Hyde-Smith said in the video. She added that her campaign “worked tirelessly to ensure every legally cast vote was counted, and that the people of Mississippi received a fair and transparent election.”
Collom’s victory now gives Democrats a 55-44 edge in the Senate, with one race in Alaska yet to be decided.
Revels was the first Black to ever serve in the Senate, but he only held office from 1870 to 1871. Blanche was selected by the Mississippi Legislature in 1874, and he became the first Black from the state to serve a full six-year term in the Senate.