STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Democrats have secured some big wins in red territory from Kansas to South Carolina to Texas. Now, in Mississippi, the race for a Senate seat is far closer than expected. Here's the Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom speaking at a press conference this morning.
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SCOTT COLOM: Unlike all the people across the country that might be surprised, our campaign, our volunteers, the people of Mississippi are not surprised.
INSKEEP: NPR political reporter Stephen Fowler is following this.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Democrat Scott Colom is ahead of incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith by just 43 votes.
INSKEEP: Wow.
FOWLER: There are still some ballots to be counted, and there are provisional ballots that need to be clear. It's going to take days before the deadline is met for those to be taken care of. Here's the thing about Mississippi. There are no runoffs for federal races like this. It's the rare state with no recount mechanism or threshold, and there's not really any other way to contest the election, so when it's done, it's done.
INSKEEP: OK. So we could be waiting for days - even longer. We'll cover whatever happens. Let's talk about how this happened, how this super-red state became so close. What about the demographics of Mississippi made this possible?
FOWLER: Well, Mississippi is a state that voted for President Trump by 24 points, but at the same time, it has the highest share of Black voters in the country - closer to 40%. And you had, like you see in other places in the South, a surge in Black voter turnout. You had maybe a little bit less Republican turnout of people staying home that would normally support the Republican candidate. And you just had this shift and this swing where we are now talking about dozens of votes separating Mississippi electing the first Black senator since Reconstruction.
INSKEEP: I just want to talk this through. And you're based in the South. You cover the South, the Deep South - very high Black populations in a string of states. Historically, it was called the Black Belt, as a matter of fact. And I think you're telling me that Mississippi was a very red state because that 40% of the Black populace, which tends to vote Democratic, they weren't showing up in as great a numbers as white voters. And that's what made it a red state, and that's what changed here. Is that right?
FOWLER: And it's an incredibly racially polarized state. You know, unlike a Georgia or a North Carolina, where you have a lot of college-educated white voters that tend to vote Democrats, you don't really see that in Mississippi. So to have that elasticity just completely upends the state of politics in the South, in Mississippi, where there's a governor's race next year, and in thinking about just the national politics for the next two-plus years because the South is where both parties are going to have to invest their time and resources because you have places like Mississippi in play.
INSKEEP: When you reported on Black voters in recent weeks, what was motivating them to show up?
FOWLER: Anger - anger at the political system, and not just the political system led by Republicans. You know, Scott Colom - I talked to him, and he was pretty mad at the Democratic Party. He felt he wasn't getting the investment and support from his own party that he supported. And so I think you see that translate in the data as well, where there are a lot of people, regardless of party and race and identity, that are just seeking change.
INSKEEP: And, of course, there was also the matter of the redistricting done by Republicans, which many people saw as disadvantaging Black voters, and people responded to that.
Stephen, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.
FOWLER: Thank you.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Stephen Fowler.
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