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Democrat Scott Colom was within striking distance Wednesday of pulling off an historic upset in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race between him and Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, but the race remained too close to call.

As Mississippians woke up Wednesday morning and the nation turned its attention to the Magnolia State, a razor-thin margin separated Colom, a Democratic district attorney in north Mississippi, and Hyde-Smith. As of 3 p.m., Colom led by 65 votes in incomplete and unofficial results.

A legal fight is likely. Ballots remained uncounted in Hinds County, the most populous area of the state and a Democratic stronghold and in counties along the Coast where Hyde-Smith has maintained an edge. Thousands of affidavit and mail-in ballots also remain to be counted.

The midterm race saw a massive turnout, with nearly 1 million people voting, rivaling presidential election turnout in Mississippi.

Colom addressed reporters at his campaign headquarters on Wednesday morning, saying that he has a clear path to victory.

“I’m very happy with where we stand,” Colom said. “I’m confident once the process lays out where the ballots are, we’re going to win, because the people of Mississippi turned out in historic numbers to make this race possible.”

Colom said his campaign had deployed attorneys across the state to monitor local election officials counting the remaining ballots and processing affidavit and absentee ballots that could arrive over the next week.

“We will protect the process of this election,” Colom said. “We will protect the integrity of this election.”

At a watch party on Tuesday evening, Hyde-Smith all but declared victory.

“I assure you I will continue to be your U.S. senator,” she said.

That was before Colom took the lead.

By late morning on Wednesday, shortly after Colom addressed reporters, Hyde-Smith’s campaign manager, Jake Monssen, issued a statement thanking supporters and pointing out that thousands of ballots remained uncounted.

“With the vast majority of Election Day ballots reported, the margin is measured in just dozens of votes,” Monssen said. “We have thousands of outstanding ballots, including affidavit and absentee ballots, which still must be processed and verified under Mississippi law. Our campaign is closely monitoring the remaining count. We remain confident that when every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted, Mississippians will have reelected Cindy Hyde-Smith.”

It appeared many groups are gearing up for a fight.

On Tuesday night, the state Democratic Party filed a court challenge claiming several precincts in DeSoto County had problems, including delayed openings, “extraordinary waiting periods” and a shortage of regular ballots and affidavit ballots. The party withdrew the complaint Wednesday.

LIVE: 2026 Mississippi election results

Kelcy Higgins, a Mississippi-based political operative and community organizer and director of the Magnolia Project, called for volunteers to help with Election Day fallout.

“The work of the 2026 election is not over,” Higgins said. “Affidavit ballots remain to be reviewed and counted across Mississippi’s precincts, and we must ensure that every eligible vote is properly counted. Mississippi needs election protection volunteers now to help protect the process and make sure every eligible vote is counted and no voter’s voice is left out.”

Colom, a district attorney in northern Mississippi, would be the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from the state since John Stennis in 1982. He would be the first Black person elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi since Reconstruction, when the state Legislature elected Hiram Revels in 1870 and Blanche Bruce in 1875.

Hyde-Smith is the first woman to be elected to federal office in Mississippi.

Most forecasters had rated the Mississippi Senate race as safely Republican. But on the issues defining the midterms in Mississippi and beyond, voters left little doubt it would be a referendum on President Donald Trump — on soaring consumer prices exacerbated by tariffs and his war with Iran.

Colom has campaigned hard, crisscrossing the state and receiving help from the national party.

Dan Pffeifer, a political commentator and former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, said Colom “has run a campaign that is a model for Dems trying to flip very red states.”

Hyde-Smith, a Brookhaven cattle farmer, was first appointed to the Senate in early 2018 to replace longtime Republican Sen. Thad Cochran. She won two races against former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, in a special election in late 2018 and a regular election in 2020. Early in this race, she appeared confident she would gain a third victory, in part from the continued endorsement of Trump. 

Hyde-Smith’s main campaign message was to label Colom an extremist, and the “most radical Senate candidate of our lifetime.” She attempted to label him as a puppet of far-left national Democrats, with a spokesman calling him a stooge of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and to billionaire donor George Soros.

Update, 11/4/2026: This article has been updated to show results as of 3 p.m., which remain incomplete and unofficial. It has also been updated to show that the state Democratic Party withdrew its complaint in DeSoto County.

Mississippi Medicaid has not yet confirmed whether it will begin reimbursing for doula services next year, despite receiving a federal grant that requires it to do so. 

Mississippi, along with Idaho and North Dakota, is one of three states that have not implemented or taken steps publicly toward covering the cost of doulas through Medicaid, according to the National Health Law Program. 

Doulas are nonmedical professionals who provide emotional, physical and informational support during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.

In 2025, the federal government awarded 15 states, including Mississippi, a grant to improve maternal healthcare for women enrolled in Medicaid. The Transforming Maternal Health Model gives eligible state Medicaid agencies up to $17 million over 10 years to bolster their maternal health workforce. Guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency distributing the grant, say states receiving the federal funding must begin doula reimbursement by the end of 2027. 

“There is significant evidence that incorporating doula services in a patient’s care team can improve outcomes across a range of conditions and circumstances,” the guidelines read. “Therefore, participating state Medicaid agencies will be required to cover doula services by the end of Model Year 3 under the TMaH Model.”

Amy Chen, a senior attorney at the National Health Law Program, said she learned through conversations with people at the Mississippi Division of Medicaid that they are “exploring avenues” to provide funding for doula coverage, but they have established no definitive course of action. 

Medicaid spokesperson Matt Westerfield did not answer questions about the state’s plan for Medicaid reimbursement of doulas. Mississippi Today followed up with him six times between Oct. 22 and Nov. 2. 

In one of the poorest states in the nation, more than half of births are covered by Medicaid. Those mothers rarely have access to doulas, because of Mississippi’s reimbursement policies. 

Meanwhile, Mississippi infants die at a rate nearly twice the national average. In 2024, Black infants died at nearly three times the rate as white ones in Mississippi, according to the state’s 2025 infant mortality report. The state earned an F grade in its latest report card from the March of Dimes, a national nonprofit aimed at improving the health of mothers and babies. For years, the group has urged Mississippi to expand reimbursement options for doulas. 

Honour McDaniel Hill, who directs the Infant and Maternal Health Initiatives for March of Dimes, said she believes the growing movement and evidence behind doula care make it a safe investment. 

“You’ve got a bunch of states who are doing it, so you’re not doing it alone,” McDaniel Hill said. “It’s an opportunity to join in on something that has shown to improve mom’s experiences, improve mother-baby bonding and being able to have a healthy pregnancy and birth.”

Part of the success of doulas is that mothers confide in them more than doctors, said Kashuna Watts, a Jackson-based doula and founder of the Professional Mississippi Association of Doulas. Watts said doulas tend to spend more time with women and focus on building trust.

“When you pick up a client, you serve that client during pregnancy, birth and postpartum,” Watts said. 

That continuity of care can be lifesaving, Watts said. She recalled a first-time pregnant woman she cared for earlier this year. That mother called Watts experiencing hand pain and headaches – symptoms she “didn’t want to worry the doctor with,” according to Watts. But Watts recognized those symptoms as warning signs of preeclampsia, a life-threatening condition related to high blood pressure, particularly during and after pregnancy. Within minutes, she said, she made sure the mother got to the hospital. 

“If she hadn’t gone to the hospital, she would have had to have an emergency C-section,” Watts said, referring to a cesarean section. Instead, doctors stabilized her blood pressure and she gave birth without complications, Watts said. 

Doulas aren’t interested in taking the place of medical providers, Watts said. Instead, she said they’re interested in filling in gaps in care, providing women with information and connecting them to doctors and resources. 

“If every mother had access to a doula,” said Watts, “I know that not only would our maternal mortality rate drop, but (the) infant mortality rate would drop, also.”

Efforts to expand access

Rafia Tchatikpi was 21 when she first gave birth. She said doctors told her she needed a C-section because her baby was large. After the surgical birth, Tchatikpi said, she found out her daughter weighed only six pounds. 

That is common, and research suggests many women nationwide undergo C-sections unnecessarily. Studies show that only one in five U.S. women who were told their babies might be large actually delivered infants weighing more than eight pounds, 13 ounces – the standard definition of a large infant. 

Tchatikpi believes if she had a doula by her side and advocating for her at the hospital when she gave birth for the first time, she may not have ended up with a C-section. 

“My mom passed away on my 21st birthday, so I had to go through that pregnancy alone,”  Tchatikpi said. “I was just becoming an adult, I had no idea about any of the birth process.”

Studies show receiving continuous care from a trained doula throughout pregnancy and labor significantly reduces the risk of undergoing a C-section. The problem isn’t unique to Mississippi. But it is worse in Mississippi, where 38% of births are surgical. The state has recorded the highest rate of C-sections overall and particularly among first-time mothers – and experts say hospital culture often makes a difference in shaping those trends. 

When Tchatikpi arrived in Mississippi in 2020, she was surprised at the dearth of maternity care – especially after just completing a doula certification program in California. 

Now, Tchatikpi hopes to be part of an effort to change that. In 2027, Tchatikpi will begin teaching doula work to other Mississippians through a new doula certification program at Sisters in Birth, a Jackson-based women’s health clinic. 

Clinic founder Getty Israel said the 10-month program costs $2,100 per person. Israel said the course aims to take a more comprehensive approach to doula training in which students will also learn the fundamentals of public health. That’s especially important in Mississippi, Israel said, where sexually transmitted diseases and chronic conditions, such as diabetes and obesity, remain maternal health challenges. 

Rebuilding maternity care in the state demands more than expanding the doula workforce and reimbursing for doula services, Israel said. Israel said she has tried for nearly six years to open the state’s first birth center, a home-like, non-hospital healthcare facility for childbirth. Israel said she has run into myriad policy obstacles. Despite growing evidence that midwife-led birth centers improve outcomes for mothers and infants, Mississippi remains one of 10 states with no centers. 

A birth center may have made a difference for Tchatikpi, who delivered two of her six children at home in Mississippi. She said she would have preferred to use a birth center, but given the choice between the hospital and her home, Tchatikpi chose her home. 

“No one wants to do it on their own, but it was something I felt I had to do because I was so traumatized with the doctors and their way of doing things,” said Tchatikpi, who is Black. 

While Tchatikpi isn’t sure whether race played a part in her traumatic hospital birth, the majority of Black Americans said they had negative experiences with doctors, according to a poll from the Pew Research Center. 

For Tchatikpi, investing in maternity care reflects the spirit of what Mississippi should stand for. Tchatikpi, whose mother was from Mississippi, said she always loved the welcoming nature of the state. But she believes Mississippi’s maternal-infant health woes directly contradict that value. 

“What hospitality can we say we’re giving if we’re letting our most vulnerable members of our society – which is infants, babies – have a poor start in life?” Tchatikpi said. “We’re letting their mothers suffer.”

The race for Hinds County district attorney is heading to a runoff between Darla Palmer and Gwen Agho after none of the five candidates in Tuesday’s special election won a majority of the votes. 

The runoff, scheduled for Dec. 1, will decide who will finish the term of former District Attorney Jody Owens, who left office over the summer after pleading guilty to a federal corruption charge. He is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.

Palmer led the pack with roughly 27% of the vote, while Agho finished second with roughly 23%, according to unofficial tallies from the Hinds County elections office.

The winner of the special election will serve through January 2028 and take over the job from interim District Attorney Brad McCullouch, who was appointed by Gov. Tate Reeves. 

Palmer, 59, a private defense attorney, twice unsuccessfully challenged Owens for DA. She ran on the campaign slogan that asked, “Are you ready to feel safe?” She touted during the race that she was the only candidate who had never worked in the Hinds DA office. 

Palmer was the only candidate of the five who did not file a campaign finance report by the Oct. 27 deadline. As of election night, she still had not filed the mandatory preelection disclosure, according to the secretary of state’s website. 

Agho, 37, has spent nearly her entire career as a prosecutor for the Hinds DA office, which she joined in 2016 under former DA Robert Shuler Smith. She has argued that her familiarity with the office has given her insight into its many problems. 

The next district attorney will inherit an office facing significant challenges, including a backlog of criminal cases that has contributed to crowding at the troubled Hinds County Detention Center, which remains under federal oversight under a consent decree.

Jackson voters soundly rejected a ballot measure on Tuesday that would have boosted taxes on restaurant checks and hotel bills, dealing a financial blow to the city’s tourism agency that had counted on tax proceeds to bridge a sizable gap in its budget.

The referendum garnered 46% of the vote – far short of the required 60% to win passage.

In a press release Wednesday, Visit Jackson expressed disappointment with the outcome and thanked those who supported the measure.

“Our belief in Jackson, her people, and her promise remains strong,” the statement said.

Had it passed, taxes on restaurant bills would have risen from 1% to 1.5% and hotel stays from 1% to 2%. The additional revenue would have benefited Visit Jackson. 

A spokesperson previously told Mississippi Today she hoped voters would be sympathetic to the agency’s financial challenges.

“We’ve done a lot with what we have been given, and we will continue to do the work that will help improve the quality of life for our citizens and that will still make us a welcoming and sort of destination for visitors,” Visit Jackson spokesperson Yolanada Clay-Moore had said.

Visit Jackson has operated on a $5.4 million budget for the past two years, which included about $1.7 million a year from the COVID-era American Rescue Plan Act. 

Those funds stopped after the 2026 fiscal year, leaving a hole in the agency’s budget.

Even if the boost had been ratified, Jackson’s higher tourism taxes would have kept the city’s rates lower than surrounding suburbs. Ridgeland, Flowood and Brandon all have a 10% restaurant tax and 9% lodging tax when combined with the state’s sales tax, according to the Mississippi Department of Revenue. Neighboring Madison only observes the state’s required 7% sales tax.

The referendum’s failure means Visit Jackson will have to continue relying on the city’s current 1% flat tax, which has been in place since 1983.

The increased tax rate would not have fully fixed the agency’s budget gap. Visit Jackson estimated a $1.2 million budget increase this fiscal year if the tax were able to be implemented by February, leaving a shortage of $500,000.

The agency wanted to campaign for increased tourism earlier, Clay-Moore said, but was put on hold because of the pandemic and the arrival of temporary federal aid.

While there is no plan to fully fix the hole left by the ARPA funds, Clay-Moore said the agency would be able to operate with the funds it receives.

Update, Nov. 4, 2026: This story adds a statement from Visit Jackson.

WASHINGTON — Democrats won control of the U.S. Senate and were getting closer to taking a House majority on Tuesday night, delivering a shockingly decisive rebuke of Republican governance in Washington and ushering in a new era of congressional resistance to President Donald Trump.

The midterm elections displayed voters’ deep frustration with high prices, the war in Iran and concerns about government corruption.

Even Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a battle-tested survivor of difficult elections, lost to Democrat Troy Jackson.

The results from across the country were a major blow to Trump, who spent nearly every day of the last month holding rallies to energize his supporters but was unable to stop a wipeout.

Democrats have signaled they’ll use a foothold in Congress to ensure Trump’s final two years in office feature a series of investigations against top members of his administration and deeper scrutiny of how he’s enriched his family. In celebratory events Tuesday night, Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer called it a “generational remake of the Senate map.” Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “the American people are crying out for transformational change.”

Trump immediately sought to shift blame for his party’s losses, posting on his social media site before polls even closed on the West Coast that he wasn’t on the ballot — even though he spent weeks asking voters to pretend like he was. He vowed to veto Democrat-controlled legislation, sharing a picture of a red baseball cap with “veto” stenciled in the style of his trademark “Make America Great Again” campaign swag.

In a late-night phone interview with Fox News, Trump said he didn’t consider the elections to be a personal defeat. Voters, he said, “didn’t like the candidates.”

Democrats had braced for Trump to again try to undermine the results if they won after he warned that noncitizens would cast ballots en masse and filed lawsuits in Alaska and California. Instead, he said on Fox that he would accept them.

Still, the Republican-controlled Congress had acted as a rubber stamp to much of Trump’s agenda. While the president has proven adept at steamrolling efforts to rein him in, Democrats will seek to reshape the remainder of his term. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and tech titan Elon Musk, a former top Trump adviser, are among possible targets for investigations.

Despite the results, Senate Majority Leader John Thune wrote on X that “Senate Republicans will not stand idly by as the far-left, socialist wing of the Democrat Party attempts to unwind everything we’ve done.” He said they will work with Trump “to stop the worst impulses of Democrat extremism.”

Democrats charted an extraordinary path to Senate victory

Midterm elections are typically difficult for the president’s party, but Republicans had originally expected that their Senate majority was safe. Instead, Democrats marched through some of the most conservative states in the nation.

Josh Turek defeated Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa, while Adam Hamilton ousted Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas to become the state’s first Democratic senator since 1932. A cascade of surprising Democratic victories included James Talarico defeating Ken Paxton in Texas, Annie Andrews upsetting Darline Graham in South Carolina, Sherrod Brown topping Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio and Roy Cooper taking an open North Carolina seat.

Trump played an outsized role in the Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina races. He endorsed Paxton and helped him defeat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas primary. He sharply criticized North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who opted not to seek reelection. He also supported Graham, despite concerns about her candidacy.

Less of a surprise was Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff winning reelection in Georgia, defeating Rep. Mike Collins. Rep. Chris Pappas also won a Senate race in New Hampshire, defeating former Sen. John Sununu to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

In the House, defeated Republicans included Rep. Tom Kean of New Jersey, who missed four months of votes in Washington this year as he underwent treatment for depression — a diagnosis he did not disclose until his return. Democrats who won included Jamie Ager over Jennifer Capps Balkcom in North Carolina and Lindsay James over Joe Mitchell in Iowa.

Bracing for a tough night, Republicans had spent the campaign’s final stretch pumping tens of millions of dollars into states and districts that Trump won handily two years ago, as Trump campaigned in heavily red areas. But even Republicans’ money advantage didn’t stem the Democratic tide.

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Trump wrote on his social media site.

The electorate is frustrated and unhappy

Voters were sour heading into Tuesday, with the midterm electorate deeply unhappy with the country’s direction and pessimistic about the future, according to The AP Voter Poll.

Most said they feel frustrated, with about three-quarters saying they feel “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the country’s current trajectory. Dissatisfaction was particularly high in blue states, but even in red states, a majority of voters were at least “dissatisfied.”

The economy was key to Trump’s White House comeback two years ago. But the poll found that three-quarters of voters say the economy is “not so good” or “poor.” About 8 in 10 say inflation has caused a “severe” or “moderate” financial hardship for their households.

Government corruption was also a big issue with voters. Roughly half cited it and the cost of living as “crucial” to their vote for Congress — higher than immigration enforcement policies, the war in Iran and artificial intelligence data centers. About 6 in 10 voters said Trump prioritizes his own personal interests more than the country’s interests.

Despite their relative advantage on issues, the Democratic Party is not much more popular with voters than the Republicans. Just under half of voters have a “somewhat” or “strongly” favorable view of the Democratic Party, while about 4 in 10 view Republicans positively.

Republicans tried to buck historical midterm precedent with an aggressive redistricting effort aimed at creating a more favorable congressional map. But in Florida and Texas, where Republicans hoped to pick up as many as nine seats, the plan looked to be falling short, with Democrats picking up targeted districts.

The GOP could still notch some key Senate wins

Outstanding Senate battlegrounds include Alaska, where the Trump administration filed a lawsuit to block certification of Senate results if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses the race, citing the presence of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot.

Republicans also hoped to pick up Michigan, where Mike Rogers faces progressive Abdul El-Sayed — one of a crop of left-wing candidates who prevailed in Democratic primaries. El-Sayed’s former primary opponent, Haley Stevens, upended the race by endorsing Rogers, renewing focus on tensions over Israel and the party’s direction.

Beyond Washington, 36 states elected governors. Democrats Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, JB Pritzker in Illinois, Wes Moore in Maryland, Maura Healey in Massachusetts and Kathy Hochul in New York all won reelection. In a stunning upset in Texas, Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who was seeking a fourth term.

In Ohio, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy lost to Democrat Amy Acton after his campaign faced backlash for an ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother, who lost custody of Acton decades ago after her husband, Acton’s stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton as a child.

Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms of Georgia will be the first Black female governor of any state. In neighboring Florida, Byron Donalds became the nation’s first Black Republican to be elected governor.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, in line to make history as the nation’s first Black speaker of the House if his party sweeps to power, has outlined a 100-day agenda focused on lowering the cost of living and aggressively overseeing the Trump administration.

The especially strong showing for Democrats could boost the party’s large crop of potential presidential candidates. It may also complicate the paths of Vice President JD Vance and other Republicans who may have been looking to turn their loyalty to Trump into momentum.

___

Associated Press journalists Joey Cappelletti, Lisa Mascaro, Linley Sanders, Aaron Kessler and Ali Swenson in Washington; Cody Jackson in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; and Allen Breed in Raleigh, N.C., contributed.

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic challenger Scott Colom were locked in a tight race Wednesday morning, after each tried to reassure nervous supporters late on election night in a state where Republicans have had a lock on U.S. Senate seats for decades.

Hyde-Smith and Colom remained neck-and-neck and The Associated Press had not declared a winner by early Wednesday morning. Independent Ty Pinkins was pulling about 2% of the vote. 

While the race remained too close to call, Colom remained in striking distance of pulling off what would be an extraordinary Democratic upset. The narrow margin in and of itself reflected what some onlookers called a “bluenami,” with Democrats notching stunning victories in Republican strongholds such as South Carolina and Texas.

Most forecasters had rated the Mississippi Senate race as safely Republican. But as results came in, it became clear the race would be anything but safe for the GOP, with Colom overperforming in many counties compared to Democrats in other recent races. 

Shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday, Hyde-Smith spoke to a crowd of supporters at a watch party in Flowood. She nearly declared victory but stopped just short, saying that she would emerge as the winner by Wednesday morning. 

“This is a much longer night than we thought it would be,” Hyde-Smith said. ”But we’re in a good lead right now.”

Hyde-Smith said there was record turnout on the Republican side, despite problems at some polling locations in traditionally Republican areas. She praised her campaign’s efforts, but acknowledged Democrats had given her a challenge she didn’t expect.

“I’ll tell you the Democrats got out and worked, they really got out and worked, and a lot of them showed up today. But not enough of them. I’ll just tell you that right now,” Hyde-Smith said. “I assure you I will continue to be your U.S. senator.”

But that was before Colom’s vote tally surged late night.

Colom briefly visited with his supporters, hugging some of them and saying, “God bless you.”

He said the numbers showed momentum in his direction.

“The results are all trending in our direction. I’m so proud of my state. I’m so proud of the momentum,” Colom said. “One thing I can commit to every Mississippian watching this, everybody in this room. We are going to fight to protect every vote. We are going to make sure your vote counts. We’re not going to allow your democracy to be silenced. We’re going to do everything in our power to protect everybody’s rights.”

Gerard Henderson, Colom’s campaign manager, told a crowd at Colom’s party in downtown Jackson that Tuesday was going to be a “long night.” 

“This is not over,” Henderson said. “We’re going to fight til the end.” 

Back in Flowood, Hyde-Smith supporters balanced their optimism about the prospect of a Hyde-Smith victory with dismay about landslide Democratic victories around the country.

Nancumar Kharmai said he and his wife stayed till the end of the night so that they could see Hyde-Smith speak, and watched with horror as Democrats stormed to victory in states like Texas.

“Texas? Come on. I don’t believe it. But this is what they want, then this is what God will give them because this is crazy.”

State Republican Party Chairman Mike Hurst said he expected Hyde-Smith to pull off a victory and overcome a disastrous performance for Republicans around the country. 

“I think if you look across the country, you see a number of things happen, a number of people responding to whatever the president has done, what Republicans have done,” Hurst said. “And I think you see that in Mississippi as well. At the end of the night, though, we are a Republican state. Mississippians are Republican individuals who are going to vote Republican.”

The Colom campaign estimated that around 10,000 to 15,000 affidavit ballots remained outstanding. The Hyde-Smith campaign said its internal numbers showed she would win. 

Brandon Presley, the Democratic nominee for governor in 2023, was at Colom’s watch party and crunching numbers with several supporters. He told Mississippi Today that Colom was in a better position on Tuesday night than he was on election night at this point in the gubernatorial election he narrowly lost three years ago. 

Mississippi has no runoff in federal general elections, and the winner needs only a plurality. Colom is a Democratic district attorney in north Mississippi, and Hyde-Smith is seeking a second full term. 

The Mississippi Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the DeSoto County circuit clerk shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. The party argued in court documents that some polling precincts opened late and some ran out of ballots. 

The party asked for certain precincts to stay open an additional hour, but as of Tuesday night, well after polls had closed, a judge had not been assigned to the case. 

Before results in Mississippi started coming in, former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour made his way into the ballroom at Hyde-Smith’s victory party and reflected on the gap between Tuesday’s results and Trump’s 24-point margin victory in Mississippi just two years ago. Trump has told voters to pretend he was on the ballot Tuesday.

“He isn’t winning by 24 points today,” Barbour said.

Sarah Whites-Koditschek is an investigative reporter at Mississippi Today spending a year as a New York Times Local Investigations fellow. She can be reached at sarah.whites-koditschek@nytimes.com.

Federal authorities have charged a civil rights activist with arson in a fire that damaged the Senatobia Police Department headquarters. Officers tracked Garrick Rawls, 41, to a relative’s house in north Alabama using surveillance video, community tips and his cellphone signal, court filings show.

Federal investigators reviewed surveillance footage from the scene of the fire that occurred before dawn Saturday, and identified Rawls, known locally for his involvement in protests against the department over the shooting death of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, who was killed by police.

“The individual is observed on cameras walking up to a window along the front of the police department, and utilizing what appears to be a hammer to break the window,” says a federal complaint filed against Rawls. 

Rawls was arrested in Huntsville, Alabama, and a federal complaint was filed against him on Monday. He is in the U.S. Marshals Service custody, according to federal court filings, and has a federal hearing scheduled Thursday in Huntsville.

The Senatobia Police Department caught on fire early Saturday after months of turmoil following the police shooting of the toddler in June. Firefighters were dispatched at 4:58 a.m. and quickly extinguished the fire, according to the Senatobia Fire Department. 

The department has faced national scrutiny since June 14, when an officer killed Kohen in a Walmart parking lot. Senatobia officer Hunter Foster fired shots as Kohen’s mother and another woman fled the parking lot. The women were suspected of stealing diapers and baby clothes. Foster resigned in October. The department’s former chief, Harold Vanderford, was fired after Mississippi Today and The New York Times revealed in August that he had sent racially offensive slurs in texts to officers. 

In October, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced the state would not pursue criminal prosecution against Foster. Protests and vigils in Senatobia before and after her decision drew activists to the streets, including Rawls. 

Surveillance footage of the fire showed a person with long dreadlocks in dark clothes, a hood and a mask walking down Center Street near the police department at about 4:32 a.m., according to the complaint. 

The person wore a backpack and held a white paper sack with what looked like a gas can, according to the complaint. The video shows him using a hammer to break a window at the police department, entering the lobby and emptying a canister, stepping back outside and lighting a fire. 

“The subsequent explosion sends the individual flying back into the roadway, with several body parts on fire, including the right foot area,” the complaint says. Law enforcement officers found a Tommy Hilfiger boot that was partially burned, two latex gloves, a hammer and the nozzle of a gas can at the scene. 

Joshua Garret, a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said he interviewed local law enforcement and community members who pointed him to Rawls, who had attended recent protests against the police shooting of Kohen. Investigators found footage of a vigil for Wiley on Friday night and saw Rawls in attendance. 

Investigators then tracked Rawls and a group of other activists to the Hampton Inn in Batesville. Investigators found surveillence video footage of Rawls wearing a black hood and mask as he left the hotel parking lot in a silver Jeep. 

Using Rawls’ cellphone data, investigators then tracked him to a location in Huntsville at the home of a relative. Surveillance agents observed him at the property, according to the complaint.  

“Rawls appears to be wearing a large, white bandage on his right leg and has a noticeable limp when walking on the right side,” the complaint said. 

ATF agents arrested Rawls Monday with help from the Huntsville Police Department and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, according to the bureau. 

Attorneys for Rawls and for the government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

“We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the Senatobia community for the overwhelming support, cooperation and information provided to investigators,” LaMorris Hampton, interim chief of police for the Senatobia Police Department, said Monday about the fire investigation.   

The department announced online that starting Wednesday, it will operate out of a new location, “until further notice.”

Rawls was active in protesting police-involved shooting deaths in Alabama. In 2021 he was arrested for disorderly conduct at a Huntsville City Council meeting for protesting the deaths of people killed by the Huntsville Police Department. In 2019 he was arrested for staging a “die in” protest during the Veterans Day Parade. 

GREENVILLE — A man who has been incarcerated for nearly 25 years for the rape and killing of 6-year-old Robernisha Webster in 2002 — a crime he says he did not commit — will be released from prison after a judge suspended the remainder of his sentence. 

At a sentencing hearing Monday, Circuit Court Judge Richard A. Smith suspended King Young Brown Jr.’s sentence to resolve an issue revealed in November 2025, after local government officials could not locate DNA evidence crucial to Brown’s appeal of his convictions. State law requires offering a remedy in such cases.

Brown’s attorneys contended the missing evidence might have proved his innocence.

Instead of completing the remaining roughly 25 years of a 50-year sentence, Brown will serve five years of supervised release. He remains a rapist and killer under Mississippi state law. He will also have to register as a sex offender upon release. Brown’s release date was not immediately available.

Smith declined to dismiss Brown’s charges in the absence of exonerating evidence. Brown’s attorneys argued Smith’s decision denied the man’s due process rights. 

There is no remedy for Robernisha’s family.

After the hearing, they said they felt no justice. They wanted accountability for those who allegedly tampered with the DNA evidence critical to Robernisha’s case and undermined a conviction that had granted them some peace of mind.

“It was a slap in the face,” Latasha Carson, Robernisha’s sister, said of the hearing. “And they all want to shake our hands and just pat us on the back and say, ‘We are sorry it ended this way.’ What? No. Somebody needs to be held accountable, shut down, fired or something. Something needs to be done.”

“What is the justice for my family? Where do we go from here?”

Washington County officials lost hundreds of DNA specimens and other evidence

Brown was 15 years old when he was charged with raping and killing Webster. He was convicted after three trials and 13 hours of jury deliberation. He has maintained his innocence.

The missing DNA evidence, ranging from a sexual assault kit to fingernail scrapings, was located as recently as 2023. Smith ordered that it be shipped in September 2025 to a Virginia laboratory for modern DNA testing, for which it had not yet been subjected. But when it came time for the circuit clerk’s office to ship it, it could find none of the over 100 specimens in the courthouse.

Deputy Washington County Circuit Clerk Cynthia Lakes suggested in an affidavit that District Attorney Dewayne Richardson and Assistant District Attorney Austin M. Frye visited the evidence room following a July 28 hearing. Deputy Circuit Clerk Latanya Watson also suggested in an affidavit that Richardson and Frye visited the room that day.

Washington County Circuit Clerk Barbra Esters-Parker wrote in her affidavit that a district attorney’s office employee confirmed over the phone that Frye possessed a box with bags of evidence. When Lakes visited the district attorney’s office the following week, no such evidence bags were in the box.

But an unsigned statement from the district attorney’s office sent Feb. 24 to Mississippi Today said no one at the district attorney’s office “has ever possessed, viewed or handled any of the exhibits and/or physical evidence” since the 2005 trial.

Brown’s attorneys argued that if the evidence was lost, Smith should dismiss the charges against Brown and vacate his sentence. Brown’s attorneys argued that the case against him hinged on microscopic hair comparison, which has since been deemed a pseudoscience in U.S. Department of Justice guidance.

Then in May 2026, Smith canceled a hearing in which public officials were expected to testify about what happened to the missing DNA evidence. He ordered additional filings with testimonies from local officials be sealed to in part shield them from embarrassment. 

Mississippi Today challenged Smith’s decision to keep filings under seal and filed to intervene in the case to ask him to unseal them. Mississippi Today pushed to unseal the filings because investigations into the conduct of public officials was in the public interest.

“The public has a right to know how its elected officials and government employees maintain public safety and how its courts administer justice,” Mississippi Today’s motion reads.

As of Tuesday, all of these items remain sealed.

On Monday, Smith limited discussion of what became of the specimens and who might be responsible.

“What’s striking in this case is that nobody has any explanation for how this evidence could possibly disappear,” Jacob Howard, Brown’s attorney, said Monday. “There was a container with the evidence and some other items. The container’s still there. The other items are still there. All that’s gone is the evidence.”

Smith also blocked Howard from discussing an affidavit from District Attorney Dewayne Richardson detailing the chain of custody of the evidence. Smith also halted discussion of affidavits from circuit clerk’s office employees or other public officials. Some of the circuit clerk’s office affidavits implicated employees in Richardson’s office. 

“And here I’m hamstrung, Your Honor. I just can’t possibly make some bad faith arguments without getting into the details of what’s been provided in the affidavits,” Howard told the court. “I’m asking for permission to be able to make an argument based on the record.”

“I don’t know how else to say it. I think I made my position clear,” Smith countered. 

Smith asked Howard to limit his arguments to cases or the law’s language. He said he felt the bulk of the evidence under seal, including the affidavits, was inconclusive and hearsay. An “innocent” reason can still be behind the disappearance of the specimens, Smith wrote.

Smith said Monday he would enter an order, which would allow Mississippi Today to directly petition Smith to open the court records. But he can still rule to keep the seal in effect.

Whether public officials played a role in destroying DNA evidence in a murder case is squarely within the public interest, and related filings should be unsealed, argued Andrew Coffman, senior staff attorney for the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, which is representing Mississippi Today. 

Families face incomplete justice and unanswered questions

Unresolved questions are part of why justice felt incomplete for the two families at the center of the case. 

As the Monday proceeding closed, Brown turned in his chair to meet his mother’s gaze. Tears cascaded beneath her black eyeglasses as she smiled. A moment she said she thought about for nearly a quarter century arrived. She and her son would be reunited.

After the hearing, Brown Spencer’s thoughts turned to Thanksgiving. It’d be their first together as a family in decades. She said he always loved the holiday, and the chicken she’d prepare with vegetables. She feels he will adapt well to civilian life too.

While incarcerated at the Marshall County Correctional Facility, Brown began taking college courses through Mississippi Valley State University toward a degree in business administration. He also completed certifications in welding and carpentry.

“He wants to be independent, to support himself. He wants to get an education, and start his life,” Brown Spencer told the court.

The outcome was devastating for the Webster family. Relatives of Robernisha huddled on the bench around her mother. 

Addie Cannon, Robernisha’s aunt, and Carson, Robernisha’s sister, left the courtroom that afternoon for the cemetery. They refreshed the flowers by Webster’s grave. A toy penguin was flush against the stone, which was also engraved with Robernisha’s nickname, “Boo Boo.”

Cannon remembers the sweet and quiet girl who loved to snack. The kindergartener with a warm laugh and a light that none of them thought could ever dim.

Carson reflected on the other disruptions and delays in the case. She drove down for the hearing in May that was abruptly canceled. She reminded the court on Monday that the pain her family bears from the loss of Webster is different than the Brown family’s.

“When I drive three hours to see her, I have to go to a cemetery,” she told the court. “The last picture I had with my sister was when she was 6. We are 15 years apart and those pictures got spots on them. They are fading away.”

Mukta Joshi is an investigative reporter at Mississippi Today. She is spending a year as a New York Times Local Investigations fellow examining immigration and criminal justice issues. She can be reached at mukta.joshi@nytimes.com.

A new set of records mistakenly released to a local news outlet by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation provides the most detailed look yet at how the agency investigated the police shooting death of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley in a Walmart parking lot this summer. 

In response to a public records request, TVMO News Network received 65 unredacted pages – including summaries of witness statements – that the MBI had not intended to make public. 

After the mistake was brought to MBI’s attention, officials shared a redacted copy with the outlet with names and sensitive information removed, and requested that version be used instead. 

You can access that copy here:

The documents provide a first look at how the officers involved recounted what happened in June, when they chased two women accused of shoplifting diapers and baby clothes and surrounded their car as they began to flee. Previously released video of the incident shows Hunter Foster, then a sergeant with the Senatobia Police Department, stepping in front of the car and pointing his gun as it backed up, and then firing as it approached him.

Mississippi’s attorney general, Lynn Fitch, determined in October that Foster was justified in firing at the car and announced the state would not pursue charges against him.

While the documents include some details that had not previously been made public, there are no major revelations that explain, or call into question, the reasoning behind the attorney general’s decision not to pursue charges. The report does not include any conclusions investigators may have drawn about the officers’ actions.

Alex Gibert, a spokesperson for MBI, said the agency’s investigation remains open and active, despite Fitch’s decision not to prosecute Foster. Gibert declined to comment on the specifics of what or whom officials were investigating. 

The document, titled “Report of Investigation,” does not appear to be a complete record, because it references several attachments that are not included.

Here are some key takeaways from the released records:

1. How many officers, if any, were struck by the fleeing car has been a point of contention. In their statements, four officers said that the car struck at least one of the officers who had surrounded the car. No more than two officers were struck, the statements indicate. 

• Foster told investigators that the vehicle was “already striking” him and the sheriff’s deputy to his right before he could get out of its path. 
• Colson Sims, a Senatobia officer, said he observed Foster “buckled over the hood of the vehicle” due to “being struck.” 
• Nathan Noe, a Tate County sheriff’s deputy, said the vehicle struck his left thigh as it reversed, and then again struck him and Foster as it accelerated forward.
• Marshall Scott, another Tate County sheriff’s deputy, said the car struck Noe as it reversed.

MBI’s first official statement about the incident, issued in June, said the car had “almost” struck one officer. Multiple experts who reviewed body-worn camera footage and surveillance video of the incident said there was no definitive evidence that any of the officers were struck, although the car came close to several of them, making it difficult to determine. 

2. Martin Zummach, Foster’s lawyer, recently said during a television interview that his client had no idea who he was chasing and he wouldn’t have fired at the car had he known they were accused only of shoplifting diapers. The footage released by MBI so far showed a Walmart loss prevention employee only saying, “Two girls running,” before officers sprinted out of the store. 

But the officers may have had more information about the women than was previously known. In their statements, they made several references to the women being accused of shoplifting.

• Noe’s statement referenced a conversation with a Walmart employee, who had told officers he was going to confront two Black women who had been shoplifting. Noe said the employee later came back to tell officers the women were running. That led Foster and the other officers to chase them to their car.
• Sims told investigators that the loss prevention employee said “two shoplifters” were running from them.
• Foster’s statement refers to suspects “who had just shoplifted” when describing the women entering their vehicle.

3. A central question not addressed by state authorities is whether officers at the scene ever saw Kohen in his mother’s arms before Foster fired at the car. None of the officers said in their statements that they saw a child, or knew one was present. Shaquille Moore, one of the Senatobia officers involved in the chase, said in his statement they only learned about the child after the injuries were reported.
4. Experts have raised concerns about Foster’s decision to shoot, in part because at least one officer was standing near the driver and could have been hit. Moore told investigators he did not fire at the driver for that reason. 
5. The report’s incident summary says charges are pending against both Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, and the driver of the car, Latoya Ferrell. It does not mention the nature of the charges, or describe whether they are related to shoplifting or other actions taken by the women.  

Mississippi voters reported problems casting ballots across the state Tuesday, from long lines to machine malfunctions, in what appeared to be heavy turnout for a midterm election. 

LIVE: 2026 Mississippi election results

The Mississippi secretary of state’s office in a Tuesday afternoon statement said that its elections hotline had seen a high volume of calls and reports of late-opening precincts, voting machines being temporarily down and issues with voters verifying their registration status.

Polls were open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday, and election officials were urging voters to be patient.

Jada Barnes, a field director with the nonprofit Mississippi Votes Action Fund, said its election hotline had seen a flurry of calls Tuesday morning from voters who faced trouble at the polls, including machine malfunctions and long waits in DeSoto County, and lengthy lines in Hinds County. 

“I know our hotline has really been jumping, for lack of a better word,” she said. 

On social media, Secretary of State Michael Watson wrote his office had received multiple calls about voters who learned at the polls that they had been marked inactive. Watson wrote that this can happen after election commissioners verify voter data shared by his office.

“Voter roll maintenance is the cornerstone of election integrity,” he wrote.

Watson added that voters who have been marked inactive should cast affidavit ballots, which would reactivate their status in the State Election Management System.

That’s exactly what Jennifer Mixon did after a poll worker couldn’t find her name in the voter rolls at First Presbyterian in Madison.

After calling the circuit clerk’s office, Mixon said she learned she had been marked inactive, even though she has regularly voted at First Presbyterian for years, including most recently in a 2025 state Senate election. The reason? Mixon said the clerk’s office told her she had failed to respond to a confirmation letter sent to her old address in Jackson.

Making matters more frustrating, Mixon said her husband, who has lived at the same Madison address as her for the past seven years, was able to vote normally. But she said she was far from the only voter who couldn’t cast a standard ballot at her precinct.

“The affidavit room was very busy,” she said.

In Hinds County, some voters reported protracted wait times. Christopher Windfield said he arrived at 7 a.m. at Griffith Memorial Baptist Church on Terry Road in Byram, the same precinct he has voted at since 2008, to one long, slow-moving line. This was surprising, Windfield said, because the precinct usually uses two lines to keep voters moving.

It took the artist who works at Canopy Children’s Solutions about 50 minutes to cast his ballot. By the time he left, Windfield said the line had grown to wrap around the church.

“I don’t know if it was voter suppression or what caused it, but it was just too inconvenient,” he said.

In past years, Hinds County voters have encountered disorganization, including numerous precincts running out of ballots, leaving voters waiting in line for hours after polls closed.

Hinds County is more organized this year, said Kidada Brown, a Hinds County election commissioner. “We good,” she told a reporter as she walked into a precinct.

On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, voters reported hour-long lines at precincts across Jackson County. 

Jackson County election officials issued a short statement on social media, attributing equipment issues at multiple polling places to Jackson County Election Commission’s new voting machines.

Danny Glaskox, the commission’s chairman, said the new electronic poll books confused some of the elderly poll workers at many of the county’s 31 precincts, even though he held training ahead of election day. 

“I said, ‘Where were you when I trained you?’ And they said, ‘We were there, we just didn’t understand how to do it.’ And I said, ‘Well you should’ve told me!’” 

Glaskox said he had to drive to several precincts to show the poll workers how to fully plug in the electronic scanner. At the Ocean Springs Civic Center, Glaskox said a creased ballot got stuck in a machine, and poll workers didn’t know how to get it unstuck. 

“They were intimidated by the machine, to be honest with you,” he said. 

State Sen. Brice Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula, said he heard from a constituent who felt the crowd at their precinct was exacerbated by a confusing system to cast a ballot. 

“It sounds like a process issue,” he said. “I hate that.” 

In addition to a hotly contested Senate race between Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic challenger Scott Colom, Wiggins said turnout in Jackson County is being driven by competitive judicial elections. 

Shea Dobson, a former mayor of Ocean Springs, said the line was longer than he’s seen for previous midterms at his polling location, the Ryan Youth Center, when he turned out to cast a ballot on his lunch break. He played a card game on his phone and spoke to a woman about traveling to Europe while they waited in line for over an hour. 

Despite the wait, he said spirits remained high. 

“Everybody seemed pretty nice and just ready to do their civic duty,” he said.

At the Ocean Springs Civic Center, Diana Schmied and her husband also waited for about an hour when they went to vote around 9 a.m. A retired attorney, Schmied estimated the line was just as long when they left the precinct. 

Though the civic center historically sees more voters than other precincts in Ocean Springs, Schmied said there were not enough voting machines and ballot scanners to keep the line moving quickly. 

The long wait impacted a man standing in front of her, Schmied said, who told her he had hip replacement surgery a few years ago. 

“By the time we got up to the building, he was in some pain,” she said.