Schumer, Dems are quietly betting big on one sleeper race in the Deep South
National Democrats are getting aggressive in the homestretch of this election cycle, sending money and party figureheads to a state that, for decades, has been out of reach.
Mississippi has been a Republican stronghold for the GOP in the Senate since the 1980s, but in a political environment that is proving tough for incumbents of the party in power, Democrats appear to smell blood in the water.
But Republicans aren’t buying the last-minute play in the Deep South, arguing that it’s a reach, at best, to make the race competitive.
"Largely, I think they’re just throwing s--- at the wall at this point," a GOP political operative told Fox News Digital.
The Senate Majority PAC, a political action committee with close ties to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reserved $1.2 million in advertising in the state to boost Scott Colom, a district attorney mounting a bid against Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
And major figures in the Democratic Party, like former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, have also made the trip or are set to appear in the state — Buttigieg is scheduled to hold a rally on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast on Tuesday.
Jake Monssen, Hyde-Smith’s campaign manager, told Fox News Digital in a statement, "This is simply Washington insiders making a last-ditch effort to give life to Scott Colom's failing campaign."
"Scott is bankrolled by the radical left because he is in lockstep with their agenda," Monssen said. "He supports tax increases, open borders, taxpayer benefits for illegal immigrants, and sex change surgeries for minors."
Like in other races across the Senate map, Colom has a fight with history to contend with. Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982, and the Magnolia State has consistently supported President Donald Trump.
But Colom believes that the ground operation he’s developed while national Democrats stayed away from the state is what would put him over the top against Hyde-Smith, not the last-minute support.
"It could be enough," Colom told Fox News Digital. "I mean, the thing is, the people of Mississippi built this campaign."
Colom went on the offensive against Hyde-Smith, arguing that she "refuses to debate, she doesn’t campaign."
"Because of that, I was able to build momentum on the ground, which means now that it's getting attention, now that it's getting resources, I'm able to take advantage of it in a way that other candidates couldn't," he said.
Republicans aren’t resting on their laurels in the state, however. The Senate Leadership Fund, a political action committee closely aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., teed up a seven-figure ad buy there in response to Democrats’ spending.
And Trump appeared in Corinth, Mississippi, on Monday to rally for Hyde-Smith. He made a similar pitch to voters that he’s done at every rally stop this midterm cycle: pretend he’s on the ballot.
"In this election, if you would, I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot," Trump said. "And the reason is that when I'm on the ballot, exactly 49% more people show up."
Jonathan Klingler, a professor of political science at the University of Mississippi, told Fox News Digital that the increased spending and national attention to a once-sleepy race have generated the "talking point of Mississippi as evidence for momentum and building a Democratic wave."
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"So at least I'm not — I can't say whether that's the intent of the funding here or visits, but that is the effect," he said.
There are also voter demographics that both Hyde-Smith and Colom have to contend with. Mississippi has the highest share of Black voters in the country at nearly 40% of the electorate. In order for Colom and "Democrats to be successful, they simply have to peel off a larger share of White voters," Klingler said.
There’s another storyline underneath the headlines of this race, too.
Hyde-Smith and Colom have a history dating back to the Biden administration, when the lawmaker blocked his nomination to serve as a district court judge in Mississippi.
"Instead of saving himself the embarrassment of being denied a job twice by Hyde-Smith, Colom is running a campaign backed by Chuck Schumer, funded by George Soros, and built on pro-transgender and other far-left policies," National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Bernadette Breslin told Fox News Digital.
That’s not Colom’s motivating factor, however. He had just left Trump's northeast Mississippi rally where he spoke to voters about their main concerns, "everybody I talked to, gas prices, grocery prices," and tariffs, he said.
But Colom said his personal dispute with Hyde-Smith was not his primary motivation.
"I'll tell you, as a Christian, I forgive her for that. That's not a motivating factor for me," Colom said. "I mean, as a district attorney, I have to prosecute cases where people lost their loved ones to gun violence. So, you know, and I’ve seen them forgive that person."
"So that's not the motivating factor," he continued. "For me, it's really the betrayal of the America First movement, right? Like she was supposed to help President Trump get lower grocery prices. Well, she betrayed us. We're not getting lower grocery prices."