Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith's (R-MS) campaign is appealing to donors to cover legal costs as she trails Democrat Scott Colom in Mississippi’s Senate race, Politico reported on Thursday.
Mississippi and Alaska are the last two uncalled Senate races, Politico reported, and both parties are raising money for possible recounts, although control of the Senate is already settled. Hyde-Smith is behind Colom by under 2,000 votes with over 95 percent of ballots in. In Alaska, Sen. Dan Sullivan trails Democrat Mary Peltola by a little over 600 votes with roughly three-quarters counted.
Both these results in red states would be political earthquakes if they hold.
A Thursday email from Hyde-Smith’s campaign said legal fights across the state demand major resources and that having lawyers monitor ballots and defend the seat “costs money every single hour,” according to Politico. The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm set up a recount fund on Election Day, adding Sullivan first and Hyde-Smith by Wednesday morning.
Democrats are fundraising as well. Colom’s campaign launched a legal fund, and Politico reviewed emails on his behalf sent to the lists of the Democratic National Committee, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD), Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and others.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris sent her own appeal, writing that Republicans “will not let another go without a fight.”
Politico says what happens next is unclear. Alaska counts slowly and uses ranked-choice voting, so if neither Sullivan nor Peltola reaches 50 percent in the first round, tabulation is expected in mid-November. Mississippi has no legal provision for a recount, automatic or requested, so court action would likely come first.
The Trump administration tried to sue Alaska before the election over the presence of another candidate with the same name as Sullivan, but this suit was dismissed.