Democrat Scott Colom defeated Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s closely contested Senate race, becoming the state’s first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction after absentee and provisional ballots were counted.

The outcome followed a tight count: as of Friday, AP estimated about 30,000 votes remained, with county updates and turnout patterns still affecting the estimate.

During the campaign, Colom, a 43-year-old local prosecutor, walked along a rally queue, introducing himself to Trump supporters and asking about their concerns.

With the count contested, both parties deployed lawyers and volunteers to monitor the process; the NRSC sought to preserve affidavit ballots, while Colom’s campaign urged officials to follow standard procedures.

The ballot-counting dispute could lead to legal challenges and a prolonged fight over affidavit ballots and opportunities to correct ballot issues.

County officials cited by WRAL described unresolved steps: Hoke County was still reviewing provisional ballots, and Robeson County planned sample hand-count audits of machine-tabulated results.

The close result also underscores the danger of treating limited polling, past voting patterns and uncertain turnout assumptions as grounds for confidence; the article calls for a post-election review of how warning signs and uncertainty were handled.