Democrat · Mississippi Senate · 2026
Scott Colom
Colom grew up in Columbus in a household with politics and the law on both sides of the table: his father worked in the Reagan administration, and his mother became a judge.
Biography
Before his Senate run, Scott Colom says most afternoons included coaching his daughter's soccer team.1 A Columbus native, he and his wife Nadia have two daughters.1 His parents are retired chancery judge Dorothy Colom and attorney Wilbur Colom, a former Republican who worked for Ronald Reagan.2
Colom earned his undergraduate degree at Millsaps College and his law degree at the University of Wisconsin.3 He worked at the Mississippi Center for Justice through a Skadden fellowship, then in private practice and local courts.43 He was the first Black justice court judge in Lowndes County and the first Black city prosecutor in Columbus.4
He took office as the 16th Judicial District's district attorney in January 2016.3 In 2021, he declined to retry Eddie Lee Howard after the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned his conviction and death sentence, which rested on discredited bite mark evidence; the murder charge was dismissed.5 President Joe Biden later nominated Colom for a federal judgeship, but he was not confirmed.3
His Senate proposals include restoring Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, protecting rural hospitals and ending federal income tax for Mississippians earning under $75,000, starting with teachers and law enforcement officers.6 He also supports banning congressional stock trading.7 He faces Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, who opposed his judicial nomination.3
Record and controversies
Judicial nomination dispute
About both candidates: Scott Colom and Cindy Hyde-Smith
In 2023, Hyde-Smith withheld the approval known as a blue slip for Colom's federal judicial nomination, citing concerns about female athletes and support from George Soros; Senator Roger Wicker supported the nomination.8 The prosecutors' letter Colom signed opposed criminalizing transgender people and gender related healthcare, rather than setting athletic eligibility rules.9 Soros supported an outside political committee in Colom's 2015 race, rather than donating directly to his campaign; Colom said he neither requested the support nor knew about it until news coverage appeared.10 Later reporting described Hyde-Smith's action as having blocked the judgeship, not as a judicial finding against Colom.11
AI advertisement and threatened legal action
In October, Attorney General Lynn Fitch demanded removal of a video depicting Hyde-Smith running from reporters, saying its use of AI likely violated state election law and threatening an injunction.12 Colom called it parody and said he would delete the post to avoid litigation at taxpayer expense.12 The October 23 account describes an enforcement demand and threatened lawsuit, not a conviction or judicial ruling that he violated the law.12