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Scott Colom

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scott Colom
Colom in 2026
United States Senator-elect
from Mississippi
Assuming office
January 3, 2027
SucceedingCindy Hyde-Smith
District Attorney for the 16th Judicial District of Mississippi
Assumed office
January 4, 2016
Preceded byForrest Allgood
Personal details
Born
Scott Winston Colom

(1982-12-24) December 24, 1982 (age 43)
Columbus, Mississippi, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)Nadia Colom
Children2
Education
WebsiteOffice website
Campaign website

Scott Winston Colom[1] (born December 24, 1982)[2][3] is an American lawyer and politician who is the United States Senator-elect from Mississippi. He has been the district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District since 2016. Colom is a member of the Democratic Party.

Colom was unsuccessfully nominated to be a United States district judge in 2022 and 2023 by President Joe Biden, but his nomination was blocked by Republican U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.[4]

Colom ran as the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in the 2026 election against Senator Hyde-Smith.[5] He won the election, beating Hyde-Smith by a small margin. He will be Mississippi's first African-American U.S. senator since Reconstruction.[4][6][7]

Early life

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Colom was born in Columbus, Mississippi, on December 24, 1982.[8] His father was a lawyer and his mother was a judge.[9]

Colom earned a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in English and history from Millsaps College in 2005 and a Juris Doctor cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2009.[10][11]

2022 U.S. District Court nomination

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On October 14, 2022, President Joe Biden announced his plan to nominate Colom to be a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. On November 15, his nomination was sent to the U.S. Senate.[12] On January 3, 2023, Colom's nomination was returned to the president after nothing happened in the Senate, but Colom was renominated on January 23, 2023.[13] He was recommended to the court by Congressman Bennie Thompson.[14]

Colom received support from Senator Roger Wicker, who returned his blue slip (a Senate tradition that gives the two senators from the candidate's state the ability to block or approve the candidate), but on April 4, 2023, it was announced that Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith would not return her blue slip, which blocked his nomination.[15][16][17] Hyde-Smith said the reason for this was because Colom allegedly supported letting transgender students participate in girls' and women's sports and that he had received money from businessman George Soros.[18][19]

On April 10, Colom wrote Hyde-Smith a letter asking her to rethink her blocking his nomination.[20][21] In the letter, he said that he had never asked for money from Soros.[22]

Colom's nomination had support from both Democrats and Republicans such as from Thompson, Wicker, and former governors Phil Bryant and Haley Barbour.[23]

On January 3, 2024, his nomination was returned to the president and Colom was never confirmed by the Senate.[24]

2026 U.S. Senate campaign

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In September 2025, Colom announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in the 2026 election.[5] He won the Democratic nomination in March 2026. He faced incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. She had blocked his nomination to be a federal judge.[4]

In November 2026, Colom beat Hyde-Smith by a narrow margin in an upset victory.[25][6] Colom is the first Democrat elected to represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate since John C. Stennis in 1982, the first Black person elected to represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate since Blanche Bruce in 1874, and the first Black person to ever be popularly elected statewide in Mississippi since the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment.[6][7]

Personal life

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Colom has two daughters with his wife, Nadia Colom.[26]

References

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  1. ↑ "Scott Winston Colom, Lawyer at The Colom Law Firm | LawyerDB.org". www.lawyerdb.org. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Discover the Networks | Scott Colom". Discover The Networks. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Scott Colom | MSDA16". msda16.org. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 John, Arit (March 10, 2026). "Mississippi senator to face a prosecutor she blocked from the federal bench". CNN. Retrieved August 7, 2026.
  5. 1 2 McRae, Emma (September 3, 2025). "Colom announces Senate run for Hyde-Smith's seat". The Commercial Dispatch. Retrieved September 4, 2025.
  6. 1 2 3 Dovere, Edward-Isaac (November 11, 2026). "How Scott Colom defied more than a century of history to win Democrats a Mississippi Senate seat". CNN. Retrieved November 11, 2026.
  7. 1 2 Edwards, Joe; Skinner, Anna (2026-11-11). "Scott Colom Makes History With Mississippi Senate Win, CNN Projects". Newsweek. Retrieved 2026-11-11.
  8. ↑ "Scott Colom". District Attorney Office of the 16th District Court of Mississippi. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
  9. ↑ Schneider, Gregory S. (2026-10-25). "A Black Democrat has a chance to win in Mississippi's Senate race". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  10. ↑ "Scott Colom Champions Justice, Inspired by His Millsaps Roots". Millsaps College. 5 February 2025. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  11. ↑ "President Biden Makes Twenty-Seventh Judicial Nominations Announcement and Announces New Nominees to Serve as U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals". The White House. October 14, 2022. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Nominations Sent to the Senate" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. November 15, 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  13. ↑ "Nominations Sent to the Senate" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. January 23, 2023.
  14. ↑ "District Attorney Scott Colom could be headed to the federal bench". November 18, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  15. ↑ "Biden Trial Court Nominee Blocked by Mississippi GOP Senator". April 4, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Mississippi senator plans to block Biden judicial nominee". April 4, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  17. ↑ "GOP senator moves to block Biden judicial pick". Reuters. April 4, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  18. ↑ "US judicial nominee seeks to reverse senator's opposition". AP News. The Associated Press. 13 April 2023. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  19. ↑ Pittman, Ashton (6 April 2023). "Sen. Hyde-Smith Blocks Biden Judge Pick for Mississippi Over Trans Rights, Soros". Mississippi Free Press. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  20. ↑ "Letter to Senator Hyde-Smith". April 10, 2023. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  21. ↑ "Biden Court Pick Rejects GOP Senator's Claims About Background". April 12, 2023. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  22. ↑ Vance, Taylor (April 12, 2023). "Colom asks Hyde-Smith to reverse her opposition to his judicial nomination". Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. Archived from the original on April 13, 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  23. ↑ Vance, Taylor (December 5, 2023). "Despite bipartisan support, Scott Colom's federal judicial nomination still stalled in Senate". Mississippi Today. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  24. ↑ "PN182 — Scott Winston Colom — The Judiciary". January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  25. ↑ Schouten, Fredreka (November 11, 2026). "Democrat Scott Colom will win US Senate seat in deep-red Mississippi, CNN projects". CNN. Retrieved November 11, 2026.
  26. ↑ Harrison, Heather (23 October 2026). "Kamala Harris Campaigns with Scott Colom in Columbus to Boost Voter Turnout". Mississippi Free Press. Retrieved 4 November 2026.

Other websites

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