Democratic super PAC to launch Senate ad campaign in Mississippi

A top Democratic super PAC is launching a $1.2 million ad campaign in the Mississippi Senate race, adding the deep-red state to its list of targets as the party seeks to flip the Senate in November.

Senate Majority PAC (SMP) announced Tuesday that it will spend the money on television and digital ads through Election Day supporting Scott Colom (D), who is challenging Trump-backed Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.).

SMP’s first 30-second ad focuses on Colom’s work as a district attorney, portraying him as a candidate willing to “fight corruption in both parties” while criticizing Hyde-Smith as a “do-nothing” senator.

“It is clear Colom is running a competitive race that has put Hyde-Smith on her heels,” SMP spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement.

Nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report shifted the Mississippi Senate race from solid Republican to lean Republican — another sign that Republicans may have a tougher fight than usual to hold this seat.

Hyde-Smith’s campaign disputed the competitiveness of the race, while tying Colom to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Campaign spokesperson Nathan Calvert told Politico, “Chuck knows what Mississippians know, Scott Colom is too liberal” for the Magnolia State, while noting “It took Chuck Schumer and his Super PACs thirteen months to run a single ad for Scott Colom.”

Calvert went on to attack Colom for supporting “transgender surgeries for children, men in women’s restrooms and locker rooms, open borders, and higher taxes,” while asserting “Team Cindy is confident that voters will reject this radical agenda at the ballot box on November 3rd.”

The announcement comes days after former President Obama appeared in a campaign ad for Colom, urging Mississippi voters to back the Democrat while highlighting his record as a prosecutor.

“Mississippi, it’s time for a change. That’s why you need to send Scott Colom to the U.S. Senate,” the former president said in the ad.

The spending is the latest effort by the Schumer-aligned super PAC to expand the Senate map beyond traditional battleground states. The group is also spending in Kansas, Alaska, Texas and Iowa, all of which President Trump won by double digits in 2024.

Mississippi is an especially difficult state for Democrats. Trump carried it by 23 percentage points in 2024, and the deep red state has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982.