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Tag: US Senate

  • Mississippi Senate: Colom flips seat in historic upset

    Mississippi Senate: Colom flips seat in historic upset

    Democrat Scott Colom has won the United States Senate race in Mississippi, defeating Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in a result called on Wednesday after more than a week of counting, according to projections by the Associated Press, CNN and NBC News.

    Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, becomes the first Black senator from Mississippi since the Reconstruction era that followed the US Civil War, and the first Democrat to win one of the state’s Senate seats since John Stennis in 1982. With about 99 percent of the vote counted, he led Hyde-Smith by 49.2 percent to 48.7 percent, a margin of roughly 4,585 votes out of more than 950,000 cast.

    Hyde-Smith, 67, who had held the seat since 2018, conceded in a video message posted on social media, congratulating Colom and saying she respected the decision of Mississippi voters. Colom’s campaign said she had also telephoned him to concede earlier in the day.

    The result gives Democrats an eighth Senate seat flipped from Republicans in this year’s midterm elections, taking their tally in the 100-member chamber to 55 seats, made up of 53 Democrats plus two independents who caucus with them, against 44 for Republicans, with the race in Alaska still to be called.

    The outcome was one of the last to be decided from the November 3 midterm elections, in which Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, according to Reuters. The count in Mississippi dragged on for eight days as election workers tallied absentee and provisional ballots, with Colom’s lead growing steadily as the count went on.

    The upset stunned political observers. Hyde-Smith had consistently led in opinion polls, and President Donald Trump had carried Mississippi by nearly 23 points in the 2024 election. Colom, a seventh-generation Mississippian, campaigned on the cost of living and health care for residents of the state. It was the closest Senate race in the country, according to the Associated Press, decided by just a few thousand votes after days of counting.

    Colom celebrated the win on Wednesday night at Tougaloo College, a historically Black university, opening his victory address with a tribute to Hiram Revels, the first Black US senator, who also represented Mississippi. The state is due to certify the results on December 3.

  • Thune Re-Elected Senate GOP Leader After Midterm Rout

    Thune Re-Elected Senate GOP Leader After Midterm Rout

    Senate Republicans have re-elected John Thune as their leader, tapping the South Dakota senator for a second two-year term on Tuesday despite the party’s heavy losses in last week’s midterm elections.

    Thune, 65, drew no opposition and was elected by acclamation, with no ballots cast against him, according to his spokesman. Before choosing a leader, the conference voted 31–15 to press ahead with the election rather than postpone it, after hours of closed-door meetings that stretched across the day.

    Thune has led Senate Republicans since January 2025, when he succeeded longtime leader Mitch McConnell. He will now lead the party as minority leader when the new Congress convenes on 3 January, after Democrats flipped at least seven Republican-held seats in the midterms and took control of the chamber.

    A smaller, harder job ahead

    Republicans will hold a minority of no more than 46 seats in the next Senate. Democrats flipped seats in Iowa, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas, while two further races, in Alaska and Mississippi, remained uncalled when the leadership vote took place.

    Thune had made clear before the meeting that he wanted a full and frank discussion about the party’s future, telling colleagues they would have a robust conversation about where to go from here and then see what the consensus was. Senators emerged from the morning session after two hours with no resolution, and the conference reconvened in the afternoon before finally re-electing him.

    President Donald Trump, who hosted Thune and his family at the White House in October, called him a very fine man on Monday, while adding that the choice was up to the Senate. Thune has spent much of his first two years as leader navigating a sometimes difficult relationship with the president, who has often been at odds with the chamber.

    No senator publicly challenged Thune for the post, and he remains popular among his colleagues. His task now is to hold together a diminished minority and rebuild after an election that cost his party control of both chambers of Congress.

  • First Muslim US Senator El-Sayed Launches ‘Habibi PAC’

    First Muslim US Senator El-Sayed Launches ‘Habibi PAC’

    Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim American elected to the United States Senate, has launched a new political action committee days after his historic election victory in Michigan, in a move aimed at building the next generation of political leaders.

    El-Sayed has registered Habibi PAC, a leadership political action committee, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission dated Thursday. The committee is intended to support and strengthen emerging political leaders across the country.

    The launch comes after El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers, who had been endorsed by President Donald Trump, in the Michigan Senate race in the midterm elections on November 3. The Associated Press called the race for El-Sayed in the early hours of November 4, with El-Sayed leading by about six to seven points.

    El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants and a former Michigan health director, will become the first Muslim to serve in the US Senate when he is sworn in. He will take the seat of outgoing Democratic Senator Gary Peters, whose term ends in January 2027.

    A historic victory

    El-Sayed’s victory was one of the most closely watched contests of the 2026 midterm elections, in which Democrats recaptured the US Senate. His campaign challenged the Democratic establishment and drew support from voters who backed his call to reduce the influence of corporate money in politics.

    He had already made history in August, when he narrowly defeated Representative Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary by about one percentage point, despite leading figures in the party backing his opponent. That win made him the first Muslim candidate to earn a major party nomination for the US Senate.

    In his victory speech in Detroit in the early hours of November 4, El-Sayed told supporters: “Michigan, we did it.” He said he was proud to stand before them as their senator-elect, and thanked voters across the state for embracing his campaign.

    The new political action committee, whose name uses the Arabic word “habibi”, meaning “my dear” or “my friend”, signals that El-Sayed intends to play a wider role in American politics beyond Michigan, helping to recruit and support candidates who share his approach.

    El-Sayed, a physician and former public health official for Detroit and Wayne County, built his campaign around health care, economic fairness and political reform. His win has been described by observers as a milestone for Muslim Americans, who have long been underrepresented in federal office.

    The Michigan seat had been seen as one of the most important in the battle for control of the Senate, and El-Sayed’s victory helped secure the Democrats’ majority. He will be sworn in as a senator in January 2027.

  • Mississippi Democrat eyes historic upset in Senate race

    Mississippi Democrat eyes historic upset in Senate race

    Scott Colom, a 43-year-old prosecutor, is on the verge of becoming an unlikely new Democratic star as he eyes a stunning upset victory in deeply conservative Mississippi’s race for the United States Senate.

    Colom, a Democrat, is leading Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by just over 1,000 ballots with 96 percent of votes counted. Hyde-Smith has been a senator since 2018, and Mississippi has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1982, before Colom was even born.

    A Colom victory would make him the first Black senator from Mississippi in more than 150 years. The last African American senator from the state was Blanche Bruce, a former slave, who was elected in 1874. Black residents make up about 40 percent of Mississippi’s population.

    His possible win would underline a Democratic blue wave that has swept Democrats to majorities in both houses of the United States Congress, including seven Senate seats taken from Republicans, among them Texas, South Carolina and Kansas. Wins in Mississippi and Alaska, where results are still pending, would boost that margin to nine.

    Colom traces his roots in Mississippi back six generations. His mother broke racial barriers as a judge, and his father was a Republican lawyer who worked for Ronald Reagan. He was elected as a local prosecutor in 2015 and has built his campaign around the cost of living.

    His campaign drew backing from former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg, and donations surged after a viral campaign advertisement mocked Hyde-Smith’s remark about beef prices, in which she said shoppers had so many proteins to choose from.

    In the advertisement, a voice asks, “Pick another protein?” and Colom answers, “I would rather pick another senator instead.” The exchange became one of the most shared moments of the campaign.

    Colom said he was confident of victory once the remaining ballots were counted. “I am confident that once the process lays out, where we are, where the outstanding ballots are, we are going to win,” he said, adding that the bottom line was that this was the beginning of a new direction for our state.

    Hyde-Smith, for her part, has dismissed Colom’s rise, saying of him, “He thought he was going to be a federal judge and I blocked him.” She has held the seat since 2018 and was counting on Mississippi’s long Republican tradition to carry her through.

    Colom has also spoken about the responsibility he feels as a possible trailblazer, saying, “My point of view is I don’t want to be the last,” and that he did not want anyone to say he had done anything to hurt the next person with the talent, the work ethic and the ability to reach for their dream.

    The race is not yet decided, and the remaining ballots will determine whether Mississippi delivers one of the biggest upsets of the election. But whatever the final count, Colom’s campaign has already redrawn the political map of a state long written off as unwinnable for Democrats.

  • Democrats sweep US midterms, win Senate and House

    Democrats sweep US midterms, win Senate and House

    The Democrats have won control of the United States Senate with 54 seats against 44 for the Republicans, and have also won the House of Representatives, in the 2026 midterm elections.

    According to live election coverage, the Democrats’ victory in both chambers marks a major shift in the balance of power in Washington. The party has vowed to rein in President Donald Trump after what it described as a resounding victory.

    President Trump has accepted the midterm results, blaming the Iran war and inflation for the defeat, according to the same coverage. The outcome comes after a campaign in which the cost of living and the war were central issues for voters.

    At least seven Muslims were elected to the US Congress in the midterm elections, a notable milestone in American politics. Democrats also lead the governor races, with 28 wins against 20 for the Republicans, according to the live results.

    Reactions to the outcome continued through the day. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped the election results would promote regional peace. Meanwhile, with the midterms over, Democrats are turning to a wide-open race for their 2028 presidential nomination, with several contenders expected to emerge.

    Markets also responded to the outcome. The dollar edged lower as the election result cheered global markets, with investors weighing what a divided or Democrat-controlled Congress would mean for trade, spending and foreign policy.

    The results are being closely watched around the world, including in Pakistan and the wider region, because control of Congress shapes American policy on trade, aid and international affairs. Analysts say the new balance of power is likely to limit the president’s room to push through major legislation without bipartisan support.

    The White House has defended the president’s agenda and pledged to defy the odds after the losses, while Republican figures have debated the reasons for the defeat. Some have pointed to voter concerns about prices and the economy, while others have questioned campaign strategy.

    With counting in some races still under way, the final seat tallies may shift slightly, but the overall outcome is clear: the Democrats will control both the Senate and the House when the new Congress takes its seats.

  • History made: El-Sayed, first Muslim in US Senate

    History made: El-Sayed, first Muslim in US Senate

    Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan’s open US Senate seat, becoming the first Muslim elected to the chamber in American history, according to media projections and race calls reported on Wednesday.

    El-Sayed, 42, a former public health official, defeated former Republican congressman Mike Rogers in one of the most closely watched races of the 2026 midterm elections. The Associated Press called the race for El-Sayed, and projections from Fox News and Decision Desk HQ also put him ahead.

    The seat was left open by the retirement of Democratic Senator Gary Peters, and El-Sayed’s victory keeps it in Democratic hands. Republicans held a 53-47 Senate majority going into Tuesday’s midterm elections, with Democrats needing a net gain of four seats to take control of the chamber.

    El-Sayed, who was born in Michigan to Egyptian immigrant parents, previously served as health director for Detroit and Wayne County. During the campaign he focused on lowering costs for working families and reducing corporate influence in politics, and his platform included support for a government-funded universal healthcare programme.

    The contest was one of the most contentious of the election cycle. Rogers, 63, a former congressman and FBI agent, had strong backing from President Donald Trump and national Republicans. He sought to portray El-Sayed as sympathetic to Islamic extremism through alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, claims that El-Sayed denies and that have been described as unsupported by evidence.

    El-Sayed’s campaign also faced turbulence in its final days, when his former Democratic primary rival, Representative Haley Stevens, endorsed Rogers shortly before election day. Despite that setback, polling in the closing days had shown El-Sayed leading by a clear margin.

    In his victory speech to supporters in Detroit, El-Sayed declared victory on election night and criticised Rogers and Trump. Supporters and commentators described the result as a milestone for religious representation in American politics, and a breakthrough for the Democratic Party’s progressive wing.

    El-Sayed will now take his seat as the Senate’s first Muslim member, at a moment when the balance of power in Congress and the direction of the Democratic Party are both under close scrutiny. His win forms part of a wider set of Democratic gains reported in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

  • US midterms: Democrats flip North Carolina Senate seat

    US midterms: Democrats flip North Carolina Senate seat

    Early projections from the United States midterm elections point to an encouraging night for the Democrats, with the party flipping a Republican-held Senate seat in North Carolina while holding key seats in Georgia and New Hampshire. The results, projected by major American outlets on election night, still leave control of both chambers of Congress undecided, with counting continuing in the closest races.

    The night’s first major Senate flip came in North Carolina, where former Democratic governor Roy Cooper was projected to defeat Republican Michael Whatley, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee. The seat had been held by Republicans since 2015 and was vacated by Senator Thom Tillis. Cooper’s victory was described by commentators as one of the most consequential Democratic wins of the night, as the party fights to overturn the Republicans’ 53-47 Senate advantage.

    In Georgia, Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff was projected to hold his seat, defeating Republican challenger Mike Collins, while in New Hampshire, Democrat Chris Pappas was projected to win the Senate race against former Republican senator John Sununu. According to reports, Pappas becomes the first openly gay man elected to the United States Senate.

    Not every early result went the Democrats’ way. In Florida, Republican Senator Ashley Moody was projected to hold her seat against Democrat Angie Nixon, although the margin was reported to be closer than many had expected. In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews was reported to be holding a slim lead over Republican Senator Darline Graham with around half of precincts counted.

    Democrats need a net gain of four Senate seats to take control of the chamber, and early counts showed that target still well out of reach. One live count in the early hours of Wednesday put the Senate at 36 to 31 including seats not contested this year, with neither chamber called. In the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats were contested, early called seats stood at 11 for the Democrats and 8 for the Republicans, with 218 seats needed for a majority.

    There were notable House results too. In North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, Democrat Jamie Ager was reported to have flipped a seat Republicans had held for more than a decade, defeating Republican Jennifer Balkcom. Democrats also claimed victory in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, an area closely associated with President Donald Trump. In New Jersey, Democratic Representative LaMonica McIver won re-election, and in Pennsylvania, Chris Rabb won the state’s 3rd Congressional District.

    In Illinois, NBC News and Fox News projected that Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton would become the state’s next senator. With many tight races still uncalled, officials and analysts cautioned that final control of Congress may not be known for days, as has happened in previous midterm elections.