Happy Sunday, everyone. By now, you’ve probably heard the good news. Mississippi is sending a Democrat to the Senate. History in the making.
There’s a lot to celebrate in moments like this. For me, two things hit closest to home. I spent my whole career in Congress as a Republican, and I’ve seen the cost of treating the other side like the enemy. And in Washington, I came to know another Democrat from Mississippi who has spent decades showing what the South can produce when someone invests in its leaders. Scott Colom’s win is what it looks like when we get both right.
Long before he ran for the Senate, Colom had earned respect on both sides of the aisle. A few years ago, President Biden nominated him to be a federal judge. He was a bipartisan pick, backed by Senator Roger Wicker and other Mississippi Republicans. But Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked the nomination anyway.
This month, Colom beat her for her Senate seat. In politics, it doesn’t get much sweeter than that. But Colom didn’t rub it in. He had a different message: “I thank Cindy Hyde-Smith for her service to our state. It was never personal to me. God bless her.”
And that grace runs in the family. Just watch how his father reacted.
“She’s our competitor, but she’s not our enemy,” Wilbur Colom said. “Scott’s going to be her senator and her neighbor’s senator, and he’s not going to offer any criticism of her.”
The elder Colom has spent decades working for Mississippi from both sides of the aisle. He served on Ronald Reagan’s presidential transition team, worked on Thad Cochran’s Senate campaign, and once ran for state treasurer as a Republican. Now his son is headed to the Senate as a Democrat. Two generations, two parties, one constant: their fellow Mississippians. Even the ones in line for a Trump rally:
When I arrived in Congress, plenty of members still treated the other side as competitors. You could fight hard over a bill and still respect the person across the aisle. Somewhere along the way, too many people decided that anyone on the other team was dangerous.
The Coloms are a reminder that it doesn’t have to be that way, and that’s the kind of leadership this country needs a lot more of. Honestly, it may be the only way states like Mississippi can become competitive in the first place.
Of course, none of that happens unless someone believes the race is winnable. For most of this one, almost nobody did.
Two years ago, Trump carried Mississippi by 23 points. When Colom held his first town hall in Jackson, about ten people showed up. For much of the race, he couldn’t get donors to return his calls. “They did not believe a moment like this was possible,” he said this week.
When Senator Raphael Warnock told a room full of Democratic donors this spring that Mississippi was the race everyone was sleeping on, Warnock says, “They literally laughed.” On election night, Colom led by just 43 votes out of nearly a million. “I kept the faith,” he told his supporters once it was over.
Think about what that faith was up against. Mississippi sent Hiram Revels, the first Black senator in American history, to Washington in 1870. But after Reconstruction, the state spent the better part of a century keeping Black Mississippians away from the ballot box. Colom will be its first Black senator in 146 years, and its first Democratic senator since John C. Stennis, a segregationist first elected in 1947.
Despite all that history, one man never lost faith: Bennie Thompson. Years ago, Bennie helped start the Mississippi Black Leadership Institute with the NAACP to train the next generation of public servants. Scott Colom was one of its first graduates. Bennie encouraged him to run for district attorney, and Scott beat a 28-year incumbent, then served three terms. In 2022, Bennie was the one who recommended him for that federal judgeship.
I got to know Bennie well when he chaired the January 6th Committee, where his guidance was vital. He was leading an investigation that could easily have split along party lines. One of his first big decisions was to make Liz Cheney his vice chair, because he wanted the committee’s leadership to “reflect the bipartisan effort we are engaged in.” His goal was to “tell the American people the full story of January 6th” and “ensure that nothing like that day ever happens again.”
That’s what investing in people like Bennie gets you. He spent years building up leaders like Scott, and now Mississippi has two of them in Washington. They’re people who stand up for democracy when it’s hard, who fight for everyone back home, and who’ve never been afraid to work with the other side. If we keep investing in leaders like them, in Mississippi and across the South, we’ll get a lot more of them.
For years, a lot of people looked at Mississippi and saw a lost cause. Bennie never did. Scott never did. And this month, Mississippians proved them right.
That, my friends, is good news for your Sunday.
— Adam
This is, indeed, good news for a great start to our week! 🇺🇸💛
For me, the sweetest victory in the entire blue tsunami is Scott Colom’s election as Senator in Mississippi. He won with grace, kindness and a bit of humor. It wasn’t revenge that motivated him but a pure desire to serve his people of Mississippi. He’s a great example for all politicians to follow.