Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) blocked a federal judicial nominee three years ago — and now that nominee has become a strong potential challenger as she runs for re-election.
According to Semafor, Scott Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, has no ill feelings that Hyde-Smith blocked his candidacy for a lifetime federal judgeship — but he nonetheless plans to give her the race of her life.
"Had Hyde-Smith not objected to Colom’s judicial nomination in 2023, he would be on the federal bench for life, and the Mississippi GOP senator would probably lack a real opponent. But Hyde-Smith used her veto power as a home-state senator to stop Colom; and now, she is in the unusual position of running against a nominee she tanked," reported Burgess Everett. "'She’s really going to regret it when we win on Nov. 3,' Colom told Semafor. 'That’s when the regret’s really going to hit her.'"
Hyde-Smith first arrived in the Senate as part of a special election in 2018. She had to contend with a number of damaging revelations, including that she sent her daughter to a so-called "segregation academy," and made a joke about lynching.
Colom, who is widely expected to win the Democratic nomination, is already hitting Hyde-Smith on her votes against infrastructure and domestic semiconductor manufacturing investments. “It’s easy for me to forgive somebody for stopping a judicial nomination. Now, what is motivating me to run is how she’s betraying the people of Mississippi,” he told Semafor. “You forgive her for that, but not for the rest of the way that she’s conducted herself as senator.”
A spokesperson for Hyde-Smith's campaign shot back, “I wonder if Scott Colom regrets advocating for sex changes for children and protecting the doctors who perform the surgeries? If he doesn’t now, he will in November.”
Mississippi has the largest Black population relative to its size of any state, and also has some of the most racially polarized voting patterns, an incredibly difficult obstacle for Democrats seeking statewide office. The most competitive statewide campaign there in recent years was the 2023 governor election, where the Democratic nominee, utility regulator Brandon Presley, came within just three points of scandal-plagued incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves.