Mississippi Senate: Longshot Ty Pinkins says he aimed to spoil Hyde-Smith, boost Colom vote

Independent candidate Ty Pinkins said he stayed in Mississippi’s Senate race to weaken Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith’s vote and help Democrat David Baria? No: the article identifies the Democratic candidate as Colom, whom Pinkins said could help people across the state. Pinkins said he deliberately avoided campaigning in areas with large Black populations so he would not draw votes from Colom, who is also Black.

Pinkins said his support came mainly from areas with relatively few Black residents and argued he split the Republican vote rather than the Black vote. He described the outcome as the first time since Reconstruction that a Black Democratic man was leading in the state. A lawyer and Army veteran, Pinkins was the Democratic Senate nominee in 2024, when Republican Roger Wicker won nearly 63% of the vote to Pinkins’s roughly 37%.