Thompson says Colom's Senate victory shows Democrats can win Mississippi

Fish fries and volunteers stood in for millions, Thompson said

Rep. Bennie Thompson said senator-elect Scott Colom’s victory in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race proves that Democrats can win the state with proper campaign investment — and that Colom managed it without the campaign millions Thompson said other candidates carried. Thompson made the argument in an interview with NPR’s Michel Martin published November 12.

Thompson has represented Mississippi’s second congressional district for more than 30 years, as Martin noted in introducing him. Asked what went through his mind when Colom announced his Senate run, Thompson said he has long felt, as a son of the South, that Black people “in general, deserve better.”

The exchange tied the win to the state’s voting-rights history. Martin noted Thompson came of age during the civil rights movement and the fight for voting rights in Mississippi. Thompson answered with his own family: “My daddy, for instance, never was allowed to register and vote. And his son now serves as the highest-ranking elected official in the state until Scott Colom was elected senator here in the state.”

Thompson said he is “excited” by the outcome and that “you never give up.” The race itself, he said, was hard going: “we knew that it would be a real tough slog to win, but Scott wanted to do it for all the right reasons. And so the rest is history.”

Martin asked whether the result signals that Democrats can be competitive across the country, noting that Thompson has expressed frustration that the national Democratic structure has not been willing in recent years to invest in states it has not considered winnable.

Thompson said the campaign proves “that with proper investment, you can win.” But he said that investment has not come from the party: “Our national infrastructure has yet to get that for candidates of color.”

The investment he described came not from national infrastructure but from local events and volunteers. “There are other candidates in the race this term for Senate and what have you, that had millions of dollars in their campaign coffers,” Thompson said. “Scott Colom was not one of them.” Instead, he said, supporters put on fish fries and spaghetti dinners, staged fundraisers in individuals’ homes and at tailgates at football games, and turned out large numbers of people “committed to making a difference in this state.” “So we substituted what other campaigns — when they had money, we had people,” Thompson said.

On the policy side, Martin asked what Thompson wants the senator-elect to emphasize in office. Thompson said the answer is straightforward given the state’s needs.

Health care came first. “A majority of our counties are medically underserved, so we need a senator who absolutely supports healthcare,” Thompson said, whether for children or seniors — “access to healthcare is a key.” Education came next: “We have educational systems that are woefully underfunded. So we need an education senator.” And third, Thompson said, Mississippi needs help creating economic development opportunities so its children have choices when they enter the workforce.

Thompson said the state’s economy pushes out its talent: “We are still exporting our most talented individuals to the benefit of other states because there’s nothing here to do.” He framed Mississippi as dependent on federal spending: “For every dollar that we send to Washington, we get almost $3 back. So we’re a needy state.”

That dependence defines the job, in Thompson’s account. He said the state “can’t afford to have a senator that votes to cut Medicare, Medicaid, won’t support Head Start, won’t support the SNAP program, free and reduced meals for children, senior citizens programs.” What Mississippi needs, Thompson said, is “a senator that votes to interests of a state like Mississippi. And in Scott Colom, we have that individual.”