Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg waded into an unlikely contest on Tuesday, endorsing District Attorney Scott Colom in his attempt to unseat Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s Senate contest. In his endorsement, he called on Democrats to expand their ambitions ahead of the 2026 midterms to include the historically ruby-red state — even as party leaders focus their resources elsewhere.
“There is no such thing as a permanently red state. We need more people in Washington who know that the status quo isn’t working and that keeping our communities safe is non-negotiable: Scott will be one of them,” Buttigieg wrote in a statement.
Colom is a seventh-generation Mississippian with a background that his allies say might make him attractive to skeptical Republicans. He is a lifelong member of his local Baptist church and describes himself as “guided by his Christian faith.” One could argue “law and order” is in his DNA: His mother, Judge Dorothy Colom, is the first African American to be elected to her local chancery court, while Colom describes his father as a “one-time Republican who worked for Ronald Reagan.” And his own career as a district attorney gives him a record of tackling violent crime to run on: His platform notes that he secured convictions in more than 15 high-profile murder cases and won 94% of his trials.
Buttigieg told MS NOW in a phone interview Monday that if there were a candidate with the background to pull off the unthinkable and flip Mississippi, he would put his money on Colom. It’s unclear whether Buttigieg plans to travel to Mississippi to campaign for Colom or whether his affiliated PAC, Win the Era, plans to financially back Colom’s campaign.
“I’ve been paying a lot of attention to uphill races that we could actually win,” Buttigieg said. “And yeah, in almost any other year, and with almost any other candidate, a race like this would seem out of reach. But what I see in Scott Colom, and why I wanted to get involved in this race, is there’s a real chance here.”
Still, it’s easy to see why the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee left Mississippi off its list of 10 states targeted for a $40 million investment. The historically Republican state has not elected a Democratic senator since 1982 and has not voted to oust an incumbent since 1942. This year, Democrats face an additional challenge in the general election: Army veteran Ty Pinkins, who in 2024 was the Democratic nominee to unseat Sen. Roger Wicker, is now running as an independent against both Colom and Hyde-Smith.
Even with all of that history, there is at least one signal of momentum. While Hyde-Smith had more cash on hand in her campaign account as of the end of June, a healthy donor base helped Colom out raise the sitting senator in the latest reported quarter.
Plus, as Buttigieg noted, Hyde-Smith has historically underperformed Wicker in reelection contests.
Buttigieg believes those trends, plus the unpopularity of President Donald Trump’s agenda, could give Democrats an opening, albeit a narrow one. Now he hopes that the DSCC takes notice.
“I certainly hope that the committees and individuals who want to see us take back the chamber look at this race, because what’s clear to me is that you’ve got a candidate and a message that can win, but he’s got to have the resources to get the word out,” Buttigieg said. “It’s one of the reasons why I’m trying to draw a little bit of attention to why this is an exciting race.”
In a statement, Colom said he is “grateful for Pete’s support.”
“He knows what I know: Mississippi isn’t a lost cause, it’s a betrayed one,” Colom said.
Stubbornly centrist
Colom’s appeal to Buttigieg also appears to be ideological. At a moment when progressive candidates are winning Democratic primaries and mounting competitive general election campaigns, Colom has remained stubbornly centrist: He describes himself as pro-law enforcement, opposes abolishing ICE, has called for a secure border and supports tax cuts for police and teachers.
The throughline in Buttigieg’s endorsements, he told MS NOW, is electability: Each candidate has displayed an ability to win over a broad, bipartisan coalition of voters, in whichever form the contours of their state allow them to.
”I try not to be factional about it. I will say that because I’m especially focused on winning over these purple and redder areas, a lot of the candidates I’m backing are candidates I’m confident can reach across the aisle and build that kind of coalition,” Buttigieg said.
The Mississippi endorsement comes as Buttigieg remains an active player in the midterm cycle despite not currently holding elected office. He has issued more than 80 endorsements in both federal and local races and traveled to more than 30 states since 2024, including nearly a dozen Republican-leaning states. Colom marks the seventh nonincumbent Democratic Senate candidate to win Buttigieg’s endorsement.
In embracing tough but possible races, Buttigieg’s campaign travel has included visits to nearly a dozen Republican-leaning states, stumping for candidates in Arkansas, Nebraska and Ohio in recent months while headlining events in Florida, Oklahoma and Alabama.
The former South Bend mayor’s endorsements and travel appear to point to an effort to uplift Black candidates in tough races. In Georgia, he backed retired Army Gen. Shawn Harris in his bid to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress and has more actively engaged Black communities in South Carolina. The effort is significant for Buttigieg: His 2020 presidential campaign ended after a distant fourth place finish in South Carolina’s primary, while subsequent polling suggested Buttigieg struggled to drum up support among Black voters.
Six years later, Buttigieg traveled to Orangeburg, South Carolina, where he headlined the local NAACP’s Freedom Fund Celebration, spoke to students at historically Black Claflin University and was warmly received at Brookland Baptist Church.
“I am at work, above all, to build support for a different vision of what is possible and what is needed in the political and social life of this country,” Buttigieg told his audience at the Freedom Fund celebration. “Basic American freedoms and rights, from the right to vote, to the freedom to criticize our government, are being taken backwards.”
A day earlier, Buttigieg headlined the state Democratic Party’s Spratt Issues Conference in Florence, where he participated in a moderated discussion with party chair Christale Spain.
Buttigieg told MS NOW that “Black voters will be an absolute pillar to a successful coalition.”
“I think it’s always important to be engaging Black voters and also to be supporting great Black candidates, especially at a moment like this, where you have this systemic effort, especially in the South, to dismantle or demolish Black representation in office,” he said.
Buttigieg credited Black voters in South Bend with helping secure his mayoral reelection in 2016, though his relationship with the city’s Black community was not without tension. Black activists were among his chief critics toward the end of his mayoral tenure in 2019, when he faced backlash for the city’s handling of the fatal police shooting of Eric Logan.
“From my earliest days as mayor to the kind of urgent shared project we all have now, making sure that these midterms go well, I know how important it is both to show support for Black communities, and do everything I can to lift up great organizations, causes and candidates,” Buttigieg told MS NOW.
Buttigieg’s work building broad support among Black voters would also aid another rumored ambition: ascension to the White House. In addition to South Carolina, his travel over the last year included stops to nearly every state in the DNC’s new 2028 early voting window, including Nevada, New Hampshire, Michigan and Virginia. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told POLITICO Buttigieg has expressed interest in recent weeks in visiting the state soon.
However, when asked by MS NOW if his current travel is tied to his rumored 2028 ambitions, Buttigieg demurred.
“I’m focused on things that are worth doing, no matter what. I’m just trying to make myself useful to good causes and good candidates right here in ’26.”
The post Can a Democrat become Mississippi’s next senator? Pete Buttigieg thinks so. appeared first on MS NOW.
