Photo: Rogelio V. Solis / Getty Images News / Getty Images
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom flipped a traditionally Republican Mississippi county named after the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, the Mississippi Free Press reported.
This comes as Colom maintains a narrow lead over Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the statewide Senate race. If elected, he would become the first Black U.S. senator from Mississippi since Blanche K. Bruce left office in 1881.
With 97% of votes counted in Forrest County, Colom led Hyde-Smith 54%-44% as of Thursday (November 5), according to the Mississippi Free Press. The results represent a reported 29-point swing toward Democrats compared with the county's 2024 presidential election results, when President Donald Trump carried it 58%-40%.
Forrest County is named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Tennessee slave trader and Confederate general who became the KKK's first grand wizard during the Reconstruction era.
The county includes Hattiesburg, a majority-Black city that played a significant role in Mississippi's civil rights movement. During Freedom Summer in 1964, the city served as a hub for voting rights organizing, with seven freedom schools educating thousands of Black students, the Mississippi Free Press reported.
Hattiesburg is also home to a monument honoring civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer, who died in 1966 after Klansmen firebombed his home. The monument features his words: "If you don't vote, you don't count."
The historical significance of the county's name has also sparked local debate. In 2020, a countywide vote to remove a Confederate monument outside the Forrest County Courthouse narrowly failed, with 51% voting against its removal.
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