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Mississippians haven’t elected a Democrat to the Senate in nearly four decades, but powerful backers of the Magnolia State’s underdog candidate believe that by dumping money into the race they can overcome the hump.
Scott Colom, a district attorney, is squaring off against incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., in deep-red Mississippi, and some of his top backers, including billionaire philanthropist George Soros’ top advisor, believe that he is primed to flip the seat.
During a call earlier this month with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., former Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., and Soros’ top advisor, Michael Vachon, Colom’s backers laid out his path forward.
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“Scott can win in Mississippi,” Vachon said on the call. “The conditions are right in a way that they’ve never been before at the national level and at the local level. He’s a great candidate running against a very weak candidate, and people across the country are angry about the state of the nation.”
Vachon contended that there was one key hurdle for Colom, “Not enough people know who he is and that he’s running.”
“Once people know who he is and know his story and know he’s running, then they want to vote for him,” he said. “And, you know, what stands in the way of that name recognition, honestly, is money, right?”
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According to filings from the Federal Election Commission, members of the Soros family have donated nearly $30,000 to Colom’s campaign this cycle.
“This comes as no surprise,” Nathan Calvert, Hyde-Smith’s communications director, said. “Scott Colom has always relied on the backing of out-of-state liberal elites, and now George Soros’ political network and Elizabeth Warren are openly treating Mississippi as the next stepping stone to enacting their radical national agenda.”
Money from Soros also colored Colom and Hyde-Smith’s first clash, where the lawmaker torpedoed his nomination to serve as a district court judge in Mississippi under the Biden administration.
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At the time, she used the veto power each home-state senator has, known as a blue slip in the upper chamber, to weigh in on a judicial nominee — it’s a tradition that President Donald Trump has demanded be done away with to nullify Democratic resistance to his own judicial nominees.
Colom argued that his record as district attorney was “proof of how I make decisions: based on the evidence and the law, not based on who’s writing the checks.”
“I’m running a grassroots campaign powered by Mississippians, and the only voices I will ever listen to are theirs, not those of donors or special interests,” Colom said. “That’s the difference between me and Cindy Hyde-Smith, who answers to whoever cuts her the biggest check, while Mississippians pay the price.”
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“Just ask the fertilizer companies under federal investigation, who gave to her campaign while Mississippi farmers are paying more for fertilizer,” he continued.
Indeed, Hyde-Smith has received $14,000 in donations from fertilizer industry donors since 2018, including $11,000 from Koch Industries and $3,000 from Nutrien, both of which are under federal investigation for allegedly inflating fertilizer prices.
Meanwhile, Warren painted her vision of what a Democratic majority in the Senate could look like, aided in part by a hopeful Colom victory in November.
“I know you’ve already talked about other things we can do here, but we need to deliver by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act — guarantee the right to get your vote counted,” Warren said on the call, “ending gerrymandering anywhere in the United States, and, my own personal favorite, it’s time for D.C. statehood.”
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