Former President Barack Obama has rolled out a new ad pushing Democrat Scott Colom for Senate in deep-red Mississippi, a state that has not elected a Democrat to the chamber since 1982 and where the incumbent holds a commanding edge.
The Hill reported that Obama released the advertisement this week for Colom, the district attorney in Mississippi’s 16th District who is trying to unseat Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Hyde-Smith is running for a second full term. Decision Desk HQ polling averages give her a 93 percent chance of keeping the seat, even as the same outfit gives Democrats a 56 percent chance of reclaiming the Senate overall.
Obama’s message leans hard on personal biography and pocketbook themes.
"Mississippi, it’s time for a change. That’s why you need to send Scott Colom to the U.S. Senate,"
Obama says in the spot. He continues:
"Scott is a devoted husband and dad, a seventh-generation Mississippian, guided by his Christian faith."
The former president then touts Colom’s record as a prosecutor and pivots to costs:
"Scott made his community safer, prosecuting violent crimes as district attorney, fighting corruption in Columbus. Now he’s running for Senate to raise wages, lower costs, and save your healthcare and hospitals. Mississippi, your vote matters. Let’s get this done,"
Colom’s path to higher office includes two earlier tries that went nowhere. Former President Biden nominated him twice to serve as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Mississippi. Both times, Hyde-Smith and fellow Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker blocked the nomination through the Senate’s blue-slip tradition, the long-standing courtesy that lets home-state senators halt judicial picks.
Mississippi voters have kept the state’s Senate seats in Republican hands for more than four decades. 270ToWin data cited in the reporting shows the last Democrat elected to the Senate from the Magnolia State won in 1982.
That history sits uneasily beside Obama’s call for “change.” Hyde-Smith remains the clear favorite on the numbers that exist today.
The ad lands while Mississippi drivers face steep fuel costs. AAA figures show the average price for a gallon of regular gas in the state at $3.93 as of Monday afternoon, up $1.27 from a year earlier. Diesel averaged $5.87 a gallon, a jump of $2.62 over the same period.
President Trump is traveling through red and purple states, including Texas, Oklahoma, and Ohio, in a midterm effort aimed at helping Republicans hold Congress. Democrats, meanwhile, are testing whether national figures like Obama can loosen a seat that has stayed out of reach for a generation.
Colom’s campaign is betting that frustration over wages, prices, and hospitals can overcome that record. The early indicators still point the other way.
Mississippi has heard big national names promise change before. The state’s voters have usually answered by keeping the seat right where it is.
