For the first time in 145 years, the southern US state of Mississippi seems set to have a black Senator again. Scott Colom has not yet won; the last votes are still being counted. But some of the state's residents, where Donald Trump won six out of ten votes in 2024, are already sighing with relief. "This was a great week," says Annette Hollowell.
A week after the midterm elections, a neck-and-neck race is still ongoing in the states of Alaska and Mississippi in the fight for a Senate seat. Both states had decisively gone to Trump in previous elections. But what was deep-red Republican territory now seems to be turning Democratic blue.
Decisive vote counting
The doors of the election commission office in DeSoto County in northern Mississippi are locked. Onlookers are not welcome yet. The counting will take place here over the next day. "Until then, nothing happens here, we touch nothing and give no interviews," one of the polling station workers calls out to the outside.
Inside are boxes of mail-in ballots that still need to be counted. There are also ballots whose validity still needs to be determined. These are votes that can make the difference in a breathtaking contest. After counting 98 percent of the votes, Democrat Scott Colom currently leads Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by 2,990 votes, a difference of 0.3 percentage points. Clarity must come by Friday at the latest.
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Hollowell is already anticipating this. "I am incredibly happy that he will be our next senator," she says. Hollowell was a lawyer at the civil rights organization where Colom also took his first political steps. "He is the kind of leader Mississippi needs. I think he will really commit to bringing people together."
Hollowell runs the Foxfire Ranch, an estate her family bought over a hundred years ago. A place where African-American heritage, including hill country blues, is celebrated. The likely election of Colom does not come out of nowhere, she states. "This struggle has a very long history here."
Almost 40 percent of Mississippi's residents are black, the highest percentage of all states in the US. But for the Senate, white politicians have been systematically chosen: the last black senator from Mississippi left Washington in 1881.
Long road to equal rights
Discriminatory rules excluded black voters from access to the ballot box for a long time. The Freedom Summer of 1964 gave new impetus to the fight for voting rights and the battle against discrimination and oppression of black voters. Young people, black and white Americans from across the country, went to Mississippi.
Together they fought for voting rights and civil rights, battling the intimidation and terror of the Ku Klux Klan. "For causes that ultimately benefit everyone, not just one particular group," says Hollowell. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act followed, the law intended to better protect voting rights.
It did not stop there. "This is the result of years of organizing," she says. "Many people have worked hard to get voters to the polls, to mobilize communities and advocate for their interests."
Not everyone here is happy with the Democratic advance. "I am disgusted," says an older white woman who introduces herself as Vicky. "Because I do not want to live under Islamic rule. And I do not want communism," she says, asked how the town of Hernando woke up after the elections.
She refers to Abdul El-Sayed, the newly elected senator from Michigan who is Muslim. It is a sentiment heard more often in this part of Mississippi, the place where the political shift is greatest.
30 percentage point difference in two years
In the last presidential election, the difference between Trump and his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris in northern Mississippi was over 24 percentage points. In the Senate elections, Democrat Colom now has a lead of 6: a difference of 30 percentage points.
"A shock, they are bad for America," says a visitor to one of the cowboy churches, where faith is brought to the rodeo arena. He himself says he has remained loyal to the Republican party. "But with high gasoline prices, it is hard not to vote for the other side."
Back at Hollowell's ranch, the cradle of the blues, the tones of Trenton Ayers sound loudly through the hills. His father was bassist for the well-known blues musician Junior Kimbrough. Today there is dancing here, celebrating the blue wave of the Democrats. "We are right in the middle of the blues wave," Hollowell jokes. "But there is still much work to do, a lot of repair work to be done."