Senate Majority PAC, the top Democratic super PAC aligned with Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, is entering Mississippi's U.S. Senate race for the first time this cycle, spending $1.2 million on a television ad backing Democrat Scott Colom against Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. The ad, first disclosed to The Associated Press, begins running Wednesday and continues through Election Day.
"Senate Majority PAC has been watching this race closely, and it is clear Colom is running a competitive race that has put Hyde-Smith on her heels," the group's spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement. Colom, the Lowndes County district attorney, has outraised and outspent the incumbent throughout the campaign — about $4.6 million to $3.2 million, according to AdImpact — in a race that has drawn only about $8 million in total spending. Former President Barack Obama cut an ad for Colom earlier this month, casting the prosecutor as a faith-driven local ready to lift wages, cut costs and protect hospitals. The national attention is itself the story: Democrats have not won a Senate election in Mississippi since 1982.
"Senate Majority PAC has been watching this race closely, and it is clear Colom is running a competitive race that has put Hyde-Smith on her heels." — Lauren French, Senate Majority PAC spokesperson
Hyde-Smith, appointed to the seat in 2018 and seeking a second full term, is running on her record: federal dollars brought home for infrastructure and rural health care, support for tax relief and border security, and votes to confirm conservative judges. Her campaign has dismissed Colom's attacks throughout the fall — when Colom challenged her to three debates last month, her campaign manager answered that "losing candidates always want a debate about debates." Republicans hold a 53–47 Senate majority, and Mississippi was counted as safe Republican ground when the cycle began; the Democratic push here is part of a wider late spend in red states, including Kansas, where the same super PAC is backing a challenger to Sen. Roger Marshall.
Some Democrats argue the party has neglected the South for too long. "I worry, to be very honest, that Democrats are missing a real opportunity to invest in a serious and sustained way in the South," Sen. Raphael Warnock said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." Whether $1.2 million in the final two weeks changes a state that has rejected Democratic Senate candidates for more than four decades is another question. Mississippi has no early voting, so the answer arrives all at once on November 3.