Now by ~1,900 votes in MS, Dem Colom's razor-thin lead keeps growing

[0:00] The 2026 midterms, they're not over. Democrats are eyeing another flip in a deep red state to [0:07] expand their already really big majorities in Congress. I want to show you the Senate [0:12] vote in Mississippi. It's a state president won one, President Trump won rather, by nearly 23 [0:20] percentage points only two years ago. The race between Democrat Scott Cologne and Republican [0:25] Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith is still too close to call. Cologne's razor thin lead keeps getting [0:31] just a bit bigger. Now about 1900 votes. Tens of thousands of ballots remain uncounted and both [0:39] parties are calling in legal reinforcements. I'm going to get straight to CNN's Annie Greer in [0:45] Jackson, Mississippi. Annie Cologne just held an event. Maybe he's having it right now. What's the [0:50] latest? Well, Cologne was here thanking supporters and senior citizens in the community and he's [0:57] spoke to us after and said that he is increasingly confident that as more votes come in, that his [1:02] lead will only increase. He even said that Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith no longer has a path [1:07] to victory. That's how he sees it. And he also called on the Republican Senator to come out in [1:11] public and make her case. Cologne has been holding multiple events a day. I've attended many of them [1:17] since coming down here and we have not seen an event from the Republican Senator. So take a listen to [1:21] how Cologne is framing the race at this point. They need to accept the results, right? That's what our [1:28] democracy is all about. When people lose, they can't be sore losers. They have to accept the [1:32] results. The senator needs to speak out, right? Where is Cindy Hyde-Smith? Where is her? Why can't [1:37] she speak for herself? Why she got it? Why she got to have chairman her speaking for her? We want to [1:41] hear from her. She needs to answer questions. What is her path to victory? She doesn't have one. [1:48] And this is and this is a really unprecedented situation that we are in in Ruby Red, Mississippi, [1:54] as you point out, a state Trump carried by 23 points and both sides are watching every single vote [1:58] as they come in, Dana. And Annie, one of the questions is how the vote counting is going. I [2:06] know that's where you are right now and you have been. You've been watching as they've been going [2:10] through the ballots. Just quickly, what is the latest there? So there are about 20,000 provisional [2:18] ballots and absentee ballots that election officials still have to go through. And these absentee ballots [2:23] could really be what comes down to the ballgame here because these are where election officials [2:28] are going through to determine whether votes can be accepted or rejected. And both parties [2:33] have had a cavalry of lawyers coming to the state. Republicans have 50 lawyers spread out across [2:39] the state. Senate Minority Leader, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also has deployed a number [2:43] of lawyers and resources because both sides are prepared to challenge whatever happens with [2:49] these absentee ballots. In fact, Republicans sent a letter to election officials saying to preserve [2:54] all of those absentee ballots. Democrats say that that is ridiculous. But that is what we are watching [3:00] very closely. And it could be days before those affidavit or provisional ballots are actually [3:05] counted. And we know those results. All right, Annie, we're lucky to have you down there. You've [3:10] been doing great work. Keep us posted if anything changes. And our smart reporters are here on this [3:17] wonderful, wonderful Friday. And I say wonderful because it's Friday. We got here. We got here. [3:24] By the way, to those who celebrate, some of us will be here this weekend. But that's okay. [3:29] Can we just talk about Mississippi for a second? Just the fact that we are where we are right now. [3:36] And the whole notion of Scott Cologne doing as well as he did, win or lose, although he does believe [3:45] he's on track to actually win there. Even on Election Day, the morning of Election Day, [3:51] I was hearing from Republicans who were kind of looking at this big picture who were worried about [3:57] it because they did not think Cindy Hyde-Smith was taking her candidacy, taking her campaign [4:04] seriously enough. And now look at where we are. [4:07] I mean, the reality is when the president went back down there and it was clear that this was at [4:12] the center of everything, it did not look good. But depending on how big the wave was, [4:18] they thought they could hold on. And she still might, but it does not look good. And talk about [4:23] not a position of strength. I mean, the fact that she has not been seen for four days now [4:30] is not how most slow count or recount situations are. We've covered a lot of them over the years. [4:34] You get out front and you act like a winner because that kind of creates this perception of reality. [4:40] And that is not how she's going. But look, imagine if our resources had been invested [4:45] in this state from the very beginning. But what's also so rich about this is just the [4:50] connection between the two. I know. That she voted against him. He would have been [4:53] a federal judge at this point and not running against her. So sometimes politics and life is [5:00] a bit ironic. It is. She blocked him. She blocked him. Yeah. Let's, she hasn't been out there. [5:06] The Republican chair in Mississippi has been. Let's listen to what he said. [5:14] We believe if the laws are followed to a T and these 20,000 outstanding ballots are counted, [5:20] that Senator Cindy Hyatt Smith will be reelected. I'm always willing to accept a scenario where the [5:25] voters have spoken and the law has been followed. There is no, let me be clear. There is no election [5:30] denying going on here. If the laws are followed and the voters spoke, that is it. And Mississippi [5:36] Republicans will accept that. Jasmine. I mean, it's such a different tone than we've heard from [5:41] other election cycles. But this is the role of a party chair to come out and advocate for both [5:46] his candidate, advocate for the process and try to inject perhaps some calmness into the situation. [5:54] We see him out. We don't see Cindy Hyatt Smith out, but we see Scott Colum out a lot. Not only is he [5:59] doing media availabilities every day, he's basically on Twitter talking about how he read the LBJ [6:04] series, talking about all of these things, making it seem like he is not somebody that is worried. [6:10] I can't tell you the number of Democratic strategists I've heard from in the last two [6:13] days who called me and said, remember when I told you about Mississippi? I do not, but still. [6:20] Democrats are really elated. And I think you're just seeing the process play out in real time. [6:24] I remember when he came on Inside Politics this summer and he's like, I have a chance. I just want [6:28] the Democrats to give me money. I mean, he certainly didn't get as much as he wanted, but he's [6:33] obviously in the hunt. The advantage that Democrats have with black voters. I mean, [6:39] historically, that is the case. One of the storylines two years ago is that the president [6:43] and some Republicans made inroads with black voters. Not this year. Scott Colum, we'll put [6:48] on the screen, plus 94. James Tallarico, 82. Annie Andrews, 73. Roy Cooper, 86. John Ossoff, [6:57] 87. These are all Southern states where the black vote is so enormous and so powerful and [7:05] important, particularly in Mississippi, the state we're talking about, which has the biggest [7:10] percentage of black voters of any state in the country. James Clyburn is the most senior black [7:18] House Democrat. Listen to what he said to Pam, or aside from Hakeem Jeffries, he's the most veteran [7:24] House black Democrat. Listen to what he said to Pam Brown this morning. [7:28] We don't like people insulting us the way they have been doing. And so I think the South is responding [7:36] with those votes in Mississippi. This will be the first opportunity for Mississippi to elect [7:42] an African-American United States Senator. And I think that's part of us being redeemed here in the [7:48] South and demonstrating that we don't want anybody playing us as the front door shoe cleaners. [7:56] Yeah. Well, I can't argue with James Clyburn, who knows this issue way better than I do. But [8:04] talking to Democrats leading into Election Day, they were skeptical that Mississippi was going to be this [8:10] close or even winnable. And in large part because they were unsure of how the black, how much the black [8:16] turnout was, if black voters were actually going to turn out in numbers that they needed because of [8:22] the, the, the math in the state of Mississippi, when it comes to registered voters and registered [8:28] Republicans, it turns out that the aftermath of the Voting Rights Act was an absolute motivator [8:33] for people. And, um, you know, not just in Mississippi, but across this country, but especially in the [8:40] South. I want, I want you to just quickly look, I want you to come in at what Troy Carter, [8:44] a Democrat from Louisiana said, uh, this is in a political story. The South rose up black lawmakers [8:51] want Democrats to invest in the region before 2028. You cannot reap for which you don't. So the [8:57] South rose up this election without the timely resources. Now imagine with a little bit of [9:01] investment, not just at election time, but 365 days a year. Yeah. I mean, that quote from Troy Carter [9:08] was from today, but I've been talking to black democratic strategists for months who have basically [9:12] been begging the democratic party to invest more, particularly after that Supreme Court ruling. [9:17] I remember there was a story in which, um, uh, the, uh, Sewell Congresswoman Sewell, uh, basically put, [9:25] you know, basically begged the democratic party to come in and invest saying that this was a motivator. [9:29] And I don't think she can, uh, she, she convinced democratic leadership at large. And so, [9:35] you know, I think people are coming upon this and saying, Oh my gosh, black voters woke up. [9:39] I think they've been awake for six months. The South has something to say and they made their [9:43] point. And I think democratic strategists now want their public, I mean, excuse me, [9:46] the democratic party to invest in a way that they invest in other, uh, demographics. [9:50] And Terry, so she certainly knows she represents Selma. [9:54] David Becker is here with me in the situation room. He's the founder of the nonpartisan nonprofit [9:59] center for election innovation and research. David, there's a big focus, as you know, [10:03] right now in these outstanding so-called provisional ballots also known as affidavit [10:09] ballots, uh, in Mississippi. Walk us through what this means. [10:12] So when someone has to vote an affidavit about or provisional about what that basically means [10:16] is there's something with their voter registration or some other issue that prevents them from [10:21] just casting a ballot and they need to have that ballot verified before they can actually [10:25] tabulate it to count it. And in Mississippi, what that might mean is the, the voter might've [10:31] been inactivated off of the voter lists or, um, and in some cases maybe inaccurately inactivated. [10:37] And so there weren't on the voter list as an active voter. It could also mean they didn't [10:40] bring an ID as it was required in Mississippi, and they might need to go back to the county [10:45] clerk and present that. But what we're seeing is those, there might be around 15,000 of those [10:50] ballots day-wide. They're working through those. Those take longer, as you can imagine. [10:53] And there's also another class of ballots that are coming in, Wolf. There's, uh, uh, late arriving [10:58] mail ballots. In Mississippi, ballots that were voted on or before election day but delivered [11:03] by the post office up until next Tuesday should be counted under Mississippi law. In fact, there [11:07] was a Supreme Court case just earlier this year that validated that approach from the state [11:11] of Mississippi. So some of those might come in as well. Um, but as we're seeing that progress, [11:16] we are seeing Cologne's lead increase slightly. So it may be that that trend continues. [11:21] Yeah, we've seen an increase very, very slightly over these past few days. On what grounds could [11:26] we see a legal challenge there? Well, I think there's a variety of grounds that we could see. [11:30] And I, I, I should stress that would be entirely normal. What we're seeing down in Mississippi in [11:34] a really close race is exactly what we would expect to see. The parties in the campaigns lawyer up. [11:39] Everything is being done, as you can see, with absolute transparency. The, the, there's, there's [11:44] observers at every part of the process. The lawyers are watching every part of the process. [11:48] That's appropriate. We have that race is very close. The Alaska race is very close too. And if there is [11:54] litigation, it will probably be done under mostly state law, likely in state courts, if there are [11:59] legitimate grounds. But if the margin is over a thousand votes for sure, that's almost certainly [12:05] not going to be made up in some kind of court argument. There, to my knowledge, has never been [12:10] a statewide race anywhere in the United States in its history that has been overturned by the courts [12:14] with a margin of more than a thousand votes. Right now, Columbus winning by almost 2,000 votes. [12:16] Exactly. Let's talk about Alaska. As you point out, that's another state that we're following very [12:21] closely right now, the Senate results there. What's taking so long to count the ballots in Alaska? [12:26] So Alaska is a unique state. I spent a lot of time up there with election officials, [12:29] and there's a lot of remote voting in Alaska. And so they're bringing in ballots from all over the [12:34] state, this large state. They've also got a very high percentage of military voters in Alaska. And so [12:39] those military ballots are going to come in too. They're mailed in. Yeah. And they're going to, [12:43] they're going to make sure to count all of those ballots. And then lastly, [12:46] they've got ranked choice voting. So they're going to collect all of those ballots, tabulate them. [12:50] And I believe it's November 18th where the ranked choice ballots would start being tabulated if one [12:56] of the four candidates does not receive 50 percent or more. If a, if a candidate receives more than 50 [13:01] percent, the election is over at that point. And we'll know. I think it'll still take several days [13:05] for them to look at all of the ballots. And that's totally normal in Alaska. I should also note, [13:09] literally ballots are being counted in every single state and county in the country right now still. [13:13] It's just that the races aren't as close and they're, they've already been decided. So there's, [13:18] ballots are still being counted. Military ballots are still coming in. That's entirely normal. [13:21] And we just showed our viewers, Mary Paltolo, the Democratic candidate, [13:25] is ahead by a little bit more than 600 votes right now, 600 and what, 37 votes right now. [13:32] Right. And that, you know, we'll see whether that's, that margin is going to be important, [13:35] but also the margin between if whoever is in the lead and 50 percent is also going to be important, [13:42] because if who is ever in the lead gets to above 50 percent, then they don't have to go to the [13:46] ranked choice aspect of the election, which would start late next week. [13:49] So we'll see what happens in Alaska and Mississippi. [13:51] Right. And we'll continue our conversation. [13:53] David Becker. Yeah, thanks, Wolf. [13:54] Thanks for all the good work. Appreciate it very, very much.