Senate Democrats’ premier super PAC announced a $1.2 million television and digital advertising campaign in Mississippi on Tuesday, marking an aggressive push into one of the most solidly Republican states in the country as Democrats search for paths to capture the Senate majority.
The Senate Majority PAC, an organization closely aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, committed the funds to run through Election Day. The initial 30-second broadcast spot highlights district attorney and prosecutor Scott Colom as a Democrat focused on combating corruption across political lines while characterizing Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith as an ineffective incumbent.
“Senate Majority PAC has been watching this race closely, and it is clear Colom is running a competitive race that has put Hyde-Smith on her heels,” Lauren French, spokesperson for the super PAC, said in a formal statement regarding the multi-platform investment.
The national Democratic campaign apparatus has increasingly turned its financial focus toward historically conservative states, seizing on shifting political dynamics. To wrest control of the Senate, Democrats require a net gain of four seats, a mathematical threshold that necessitates capturing multiple states where President Donald Trump secured decisive victories in the 2024 presidential election.
Mississippi represents the most conservative state the super PAC has entered during the current cycle. President Trump carried the state by 23 points two years ago, and a Democrat has not secured a U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi since 1982. Alongside the Mississippi investment, the Senate Majority PAC has allocated funds in other double-digit Trump states, including Kansas—where Trump won by 16 points—as well as Alaska, Texas, and Iowa.
Top party leaders, including Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, have repeatedly championed Colom as a formidable contender. Colom, serving as a district attorney, stated during his campaign launch last year that his primary motivation to enter the race stemmed from Hyde-Smith’s legislative vote supporting a major federal tax and spending package enacted under the previous administration, which included cuts to Medicaid funding.
The two candidates share a contentious political history that predates the current Senate contest. During the Biden administration, Hyde-Smith actively blocked Colom’s nomination for a federal judgeship. When announcing his candidacy, Colom publicly stated that he had moved past the confirmation blockade.
Hyde-Smith enters the contest backed by an endorsement from President Trump and is campaigning for her second full term in the chamber. She was initially appointed to the Senate in 2018 and subsequently secured her first full term in 2020 by a 10-point margin.
