One week after nearly a million voters cast their ballots, the results are in. Mississippians picked a new U.S. senator: Scott Colom, the district attorney from Columbus. Colom defeated incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith to become the first Black person the state has sent to the Senate in more than 150 years. He received 49% of […]
2026 midterms
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Roadblocks, Police Patrols Fuel Voter Intimidation Concerns in Mississippi
Catherine Robinson is exhausted. For the past week, she and other organizers have been working overtime to ensure voters’ ballots are counted in the U.S. Senate race in her home state of Mississippi. They deployed monitors to observe the count and sent messages to inform voters of how to rectify issues they experienced on Election […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
As Mississippi Counts Vote, Ballot Monitors Say They’re Being Shut Out
Photos by Eric Truman-Reeves for ‘Sipp Talk Media CANTON, Mississippi — It took Natt Offiah an hour to realize he had arrived at the wrong location to monitor the provisional and absentee ballots in the Mississippi U.S. Senate race. He drove to Madison County Circuit Clerk’s Office on Wednesday, but the building was under construction. […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Across the South, Voters Turned Anger Into a ‘Blacklash’
MIAMI — As the raindrops eased on the evening of Election Day, a fellow voter helped to lift Niecy Rahming out of her daughter’s car and into her wheelchair. Rahming, 95, made it to the polling station with 10 minutes to spare, casting her vote for what she hoped would be Florida’s first Black senator, […]
Posted inElections, HBCUs, Politics & Policy
From FAMU to Spelman, HBCU Alumni Make History in the Midterms
For decades, Black leaders have been preaching that HBCUs consistently punch above their weight, producing some of the nation’s best and brightest doctors, educators, and lawmakers. If it wasn’t understood before, this year’s midterms proved their point … again. From Howard University’s hilltop to the highest of seven hills at Florida A&M University, HBCU graduates […]
Posted inBlack Farmers, Elections, Politics & Policy
Black Democrats Made History, So Did a Black Farmer
On Election Day, Black women in Georgia broke barriers in more ways than one. Voters there not only elected the first Black woman governor in U.S. history, but also chose Katherine Juhan-Arnold as the state’s first woman and Black commissioner of agriculture. “Georgia, we did it! I am overwhelmed with gratitude,” Juhan-Arnold wrote in a […]
Posted inAugusta, Elections, Health, Housing, Politics & Policy
Black Voters to Georgia’s Winners: Bring Down Our Bills
The candidates who won election in Georgia on Tuesday have made big promises to voters that many Black residents of Augusta want to see fulfilled. Democrat Jon Ossoff will return to his U.S. Senate seat as part of the sweeping victory his party won on Tuesday, taking control of the House and Senate. Ossoff has […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Black Congressional Representation Holds Steady Despite Fears of Steep Losses
One concern weighing on Black voters this year was: How many of their representatives — in particular those in the Congressional Black Caucus — would still have their seats after the 2026 midterm elections? That worry sprang from a specific source. Black voters were at risk of losing as many as 19 House seats as […]
Posted inElections, Environmental Justice, Politics & Policy
Revolting Against Data Centers, Voters in Nearly 40 Towns Reject Projects
Silicon Valley wants communities across the country to make room for its data centers. On Tuesday, those communities had their say. Voters considered nearly 40 data center-related ballot measures across 10 states, turning the midterms into a sprawling referendum shifting the technology industry’s demand for power into a test of political power. Of the ballot […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Mississippi Could Elect Its First Black U.S. Senator Since Reconstruction
Every Sunday at church, Pauline Rogers remembers someone in the little broom closet registering people to vote in rural Vancleave, Mississippi. Back then, conversations about voting were like “brushing your teeth, washing your face, or making your bed.” Everyone knew it was their duty, the 66-year-old recalled. “There were clerks that actually kept records in […]
