Mississippi has picked a new senator and made history doing it. Democrat Scott Colom was declared the winner of the state's U.S. Senate race on Wednesday evening, ousting Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith eight days after the polls closed. The 43-year-old prosecutor becomes the first Black senator from Mississippi since Blanche Kelso Bruce left office in 1881 and the first Black senator the state's voters have ever chosen directly.

The call came after the last counties finished reviewing absentee and affidavit ballots. Colom had been ahead by only 43 votes when election night ended. His edge grew with nearly every update in the days since and reached 4,669 votes on Wednesday, with Colom at 49.2% to Hyde-Smith's 48.7%. An independent candidate drew about 2%.

Hyde-Smith conceded in a short video soon afterward. She said the result was not what her campaign had worked for but that she respects the choice Mississippi voters made. She congratulated Colom and wished him well in the job.

A victory party on a historic campus

Colom celebrated Wednesday night on the chapel lawn at Tougaloo College, the historically Black school in Jackson that served as a hub of the civil rights movement. About a thousand people gathered for a party that felt like a family cookout, with line dancing, toddlers on shoulders and elders who remember the fight for the Voting Rights Act. The program opened with the national anthem and Lift Every Voice and Sing.

His wife, Nadia, introduced him alongside Rep. Bennie Thompson, who said he now has a partner in Washington. Colom told the crowd his run began with a prayer and that prayers in Mississippi have often changed the course of history. His parents were in the audience. His mother, Dorothy, is a retired judge who was the first Black person elected to a chancery court seat in their part of the state.

From blocked judge to senator-elect

The win carries a twist. President Joe Biden nominated Colom to the federal bench in 2023, but Hyde-Smith blocked the nomination on her own. Three years later he took her seat.

Colom built his campaign with little early help from national Democrats. He drove a taco truck around the state, showed up at college homecomings and even chatted with voters standing in line for a rally held for his opponent. A viral ad mocking Hyde-Smith's advice that shoppers facing high beef prices could pick another protein drew more than 20 million views. His closing ad was filmed at the home of Medgar Evers, the civil rights leader murdered in 1963 for helping Black Mississippians register to vote.

What it means in Washington

His seat is the eighth Republican-held Senate seat Democrats flipped this year, lifting the party to 55 seats when the new Congress meets in January. The last Democrat Mississippi sent to the Senate was John Stennis in 1982. Black voters, who make up close to 40% of the state's electorate, turned out in force despite more than 1,600 affidavit ballots being rejected in Hinds County alone.

The NAACP said Mississippi voters made history because they refused to be intimidated or counted out. Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, who both endorsed him, called to offer congratulations. Colom will join a record number of Black senators set to take office in January.