Hyde-Smith ‘feeling very optimistic’ despite trailing in Mississippi vote count

Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) is “feeling very optimistic” about her reelection odds despite her Democratic challenger, Scott Colom, narrowly leading her in the Senate race with over 95 percent of the vote counted as of Tuesday.

“We got a few thousand out so we’re feeling very optimistic,” the incumbent senator told CBS News’s Caitlin Huey-Burns in a rare hallway interview — which she has refused in the past.

The Senate race in the historically red-leaning state remains uncalled as of Tuesday afternoon, with the Democrat maintaining a lead of a little over 2,500 votes following last week’s midterms, according to The Hill’s election forecasting partner, Decision Desk HQ .

Mississippi Republican Party Chair Mike Hurst told the press earlier that if “the laws are followed and the voters spoke,” the state GOP will accept either outcome.

When asked if she could have done more to make the race less competitive, Hyde-Smith told Heuy-Burns, “We worked very hard and had a very good campaign.”

Mississippi and Alaska are the only two states left to call the results of their respective congressional elections after Democrats secured sweeping victories in the midterms — taking control of both chambers of the Congress.

The ballots are still being received in Mississippi, which allows mail ballots to be counted and received up to five business days after the election as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

Colom blasted election handicappers on Monday for underestimating his chances of winning the Senate race in a state that has not elected a Democratic senator since 1982.

“At some point, we have to talk about [Cook Political Report] and other ‘prognosticators’ who had me and other southern candidates labeled as solid R for much of the campaign cycle,” Colom wrote on social platform X . “They made it much more difficult to fundraise and are part of the reason the South has been neglected for so long.”

Attorneys for Hyde-Smith recently demanded in a letter sent to the election commissioners in all 82 Mississippi counties that they separate the affidavit ballots, document their disposition and preserve “all associated materials.”

Colom’s attorney, in a response letter to county election commissioners, said the demands “have no basis in Mississippi law.”

“If you depart from ordinary election procedures as you have been asked to do, you will violate Mississippi voters’ rights and Mississippi election law,” the lawyer wrote in the letter.

The Democrats are slated to hold 54 Senate seats under the current tally, and if Mississippi and Alaska swing in their favor, the number could rise to 56.