Democrat Scott Colom seals historic win in Mississippi Senate race

Democrat Scott Colom has won the US Senate race in Mississippi, delivering a shock victory for the party in a deeply conservative state that has elected Republicans for decades. Colom's victory makes him the first black person from Mississippi to be elected to the US Senate in more than 140 years. Fewer than five thousand votes out of nearly a million counted separated him from his Republican opponent, the incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.

The result means the Democrats will hold 55 seats in the 100-member Senate, with a knife-edge race in Alaska still to be called. Colom, 43, won with 49.2% of the vote, while Hyde-Smith received 48.7% and an independent candidate got 2.1%, according to figures from CBS. Colom offered a victory speech on the campus of Tougaloo College, met by hundreds of cheering supporters standing side-by-side under the night sky.

Excitement filled the air as he thanked them for the support over the days of waiting for a result since the 4 November election.