Following this short post, you will find a second post about Mississippi, republished from May of 2025. It seemed relevant on a day when Mississippi is so much in the news. I hope you read it (again).

I think that the election of Scott Colom to the U.S. Senate has a chance of turning Mississippi blue, not just for one election, but for the foreseeable future. Mississippi is 40% Black, and if Blacks vote in the same proportion as Whites in the state, Mississippi will become a Democratic bastion.

As I understand it, about 30% of the voters in the Mississippi midterm were Black. That is less than 40%, but more than it has been in the past. And the Black voters voted Democratic (ready for this) 98 to 2.

But there’s more. 20% per cent  of the Mississippi voters were Black women, while only 10% were Black men. And if Black men voted at the same rate as Black women, 40% of Mississippi voters would have been Black, and Democrats would be unbeatable. And with the election of Scott Colom, assuming Colom performs okay, the confidence brought to Mississippians by this election may just change the attitude of those Black men who just didn’t vote this year.

As to the White voters, you assume most will vote Republican, but not all. This year, about 25% of Whites voted from Colom. There is no reason that this number can be raised.

I know nothing about other Mississippi elections. I don’t know when Senator Wicker’s term expires, and I don’t even know how the Congressional elections went. Mississippi has a long way to go. It’s voting regulations are restrictive (no early or mail-in voting, as I understand it), I am sure that legislative districts, both federal and state, have been drawn to keep Whites in power, there are certainly pockets of strong racial bias, and throughout much of the state, you can’t get any fresh fish other than catfish. But the times just may be a-changing.