By Hubie and Bertie
The state of Mississippi has made history today. It's officially elected its first Black US Senator since Reconstruction, and we cats are so happy we think we're going to lose our damn minds.
There are many fascinating reasons that Scott Colom is headed to DC (and yes, we all know the fun one about how Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked him from becoming a federal judge). Here are some others:
Republicans stayed home. Hyde-Smith underperformed her 2018 vote total, with nearly 260,000 Republican voters who didn't turn out — perhaps because of the dismal environment for the GOP nationally, but certainly also because Hyde-Smith ran an equally awful campaign.
Black voters got mad. When Republicans attempted to dismember Benny Thompson's Black majority district after Callais, they gave African-Americans off-the-charts motivation to get themselves to the polls. The previous record for a Democratic candidate in Mississippi in a non-Presidential year was Mike Espy's 2018 vote total of around 420,000. As of this past weekend, Colom was already at 470,000.
A lot of Republicans who did turn out split their ticket to send a message. About 25,000 regular Republican voters in urban and suburban districts went to their polling places to vote for their GOP House member — and then turned around and marked their ballots for Scott Colom. They voted against the one person in Mississippi most aligned with Donald Trump, Cindy Hyde-Smith.
It's all too wonderful. But of course, none of it would have been possible if Scott Colom had not decided to ignore the naysayers and put his name on the ballot — and if he hadn't run such a top-notch campaign. The "Pick Another Senator" ad will have a special place in American political history. We cats salute Team Colom, and we PURR.
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