00:02Democratic candidate Scott Cologne has won the U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi after a prolonged
00:07ballot counting process, making him the first black senator from the southern state in more
00:13than 140 years. Cologne defeated Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith with a margin of
00:20less than 5,000 votes, adding to a decisive midterm rebuke of President Donald Trump,
00:25whose party suffered defeats in several Republican-controlled states.
00:30I pointed out that people were going to give me too much credit for it because it's not something
00:37that I did, y'all. It's something that we did. All I did was have the courage to imagine a
00:52night like
00:52this. I had the courage to believe in Mississippi. I had the courage to understand that we could show
01:02the country that Mississippi matters.
01:05Cologne's narrow victory is a seismic shift in Mississippi, which has been controlled mostly
01:10by white conservatives for generations despite having the largest share of black residents of
01:15any U.S. state. Cologne said during the campaign that he would represent all of Mississippi,
01:21a state where racial divisions have longed to find its politics and society,
01:25and he repeated that pledge after his victory.
