See most notable ads in MS Senate race between Colom, Hyde-Smith

• Democratic challenger Scott Colom has used viral social media ads and pop culture references in his U.S. Senate campaign.
• Incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has run a more traditional campaign, labeling Colom as a "transgender defender."
• A political action committee aired an ad in Mandarin Chinese criticizing Hyde-Smith for allowing foreign land purchases in Mississippi.
• Colom's campaign faced legal questions from the state's attorney general over an AI-generated video of Hyde-Smith.

The road to federal office has long been paved with straightforward, if boring, television ads. Candidates take aim at their opponents and trumpet their own accomplishments in ad spots carefully placed in the midst of the evening news or Saturday night football.

Mississippi's U.S. Senate midterm race, particularly through the online accounts of Democratic challenger Scott Colom, has opted for a different path one "shiiiii–" at a time.

The district attorney, facing an uphill battle, has leveraged online trends, pop culture references and the constant churn of social media algorithms to put his brand in front of Mississippi voters. The Nov. 3 election against incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who has run a more traditional campaign, is the final test of his modernized strategy.

The Clarion Ledger compiled some of the most notable political ads of the contest between Colom and Hyde-Smith, which have been shared online and on social media and television over the last few months.

"Sinators"

Colom paid tribute to the Oscar standout "Sinners" in an ad on the eve of Halloween, casting himself and his twin brother Andrew as the film twins Smoke and Stack Moore.

In the movie, which was set in Clarksdale, the brothers try to keep vampires away from their juke joint. The ad, filmed in Greenwood, features a women resembling Hyde-Smith begging for entry into the cabin.

"Trump needs more gold for the Oval [Office]," the figure tells Colom. "I'll play you a pretty D.C. tune."

The Democratic candidate says the pair have to "hold her off until the sun rises on Election Day."

The video received more than 380,000 views on X alone in the days before the Nov. 3 election.

"Pick another senator"

Colom's riff on "Sinners" was popular online, but none of his ads prior to or since have reached the visibility of the "pick another senator" video that his campaign posted on Oct. 13. The ad racked up more than 4 million views across X, Instagram and Facebook in around three weeks.

The ad is a simple, 30-second spot picking apart Hyde-Smith's February interview with WLOX in which she responds to concerns about climbing beef prices with the statement that Mississippians "have so many proteins to choose from."

The video exploded in popularity, earning nods from national political figures and a seal of approval from conservative advocate Terry Schilling in a Fox News segment. In nearly every one of Colom's campaign events since, the current senator campaigning alongside the Mississippian has referenced the slogan. The "pick another senator" signs were by far the most popular at his Columbus stop with former Vice President Kamala Harris.

A tribute to a civil rights icon

The Democratic challenger went in a different direction on Nov. 1, less than 48 hours before the first votes will be cast in his bid to unseat Hyde-Smith. He cut an ad outside of the Medgar Evers House, where the veteran and civil rights advocate was murdered in 1963.

"Medgar Evers was killed in his driveway because he refused to accept a Mississippi where some were denied the right to vote," the caption on the post read. "He stood with thousands who marched, organized and sacrificed so future generations could have a voice. We owe it to them not to take that right for granted."

Colom tied the landmark to his career as a prosecutor, which he said has put him "in a lot of houses where something terrible happened." Evers' death, and the deaths of other leaders, Colom said, will have been in vain unless Mississippians exercise their rights in the voting booth.

The ad came just after Colom campaigned with civil rights activist and U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina in Jackson. The men discussed the impacts of redistricting and what they described as race-based voter suppression in their states, and Colom committed to banning partisan redistricting if elected.

"Thank you for NOT PROTECTING Mississippi"

A late October video from the Government That Works political action committee, a group that funds candidates with "the independence to break with their own party when it’s wrong," is perhaps the first political ad in the Magnolia State to air in Mandarin Chinese.

The 30-second spot takes aim at Hyde-Smith from the perspective on China, thanking her for letting their "communist country buy acres and acres of Mississippi farmland" and "NOT PROTECTING Mississippi." It describes the senator, who sits on the Senate agriculture committee and previously served as the state agriculture commissioner, as putting "China first" and "Mississippi last."

The video is tinted in red and yellow, like the Chinese flag, and shots of the flag are cut between portraits of Hyde-Smith and drone images of farmland.

The ad plays on the oft-discussed opposition to non-citizens buying agricultural land in Mississippi. A legislative committee weighed a complete ban on foreign land purchases in the state, and a bill outlining the prohibition will likely emerge in the upcoming 2027 session.

The "transgender defender"

Like Colom dubbed her "Cindy High Prices," the incumbent Republican has a name for her opponent as well: the "transgender defender."

Hyde-Smith points to a 2021 letter from Fair and Just Prosecution that Colom signed onto "condemning the criminalization of transgender people." She wrote on her attack website that Colom "pushed radical sex change surgeries for children," though he has since stated that he does not support gender-affirming surgeries for minors.

Colom is the "most radical Senate candidate in our lifetime," Hyde-Smith warned in a Sept. 8 ad that has received nearly a million views on YouTube. She dismissed the district attorney as "beholden to the far left."

The video combines photos of Colom with those of drag queens and political figures like former President Joe Biden, who nominated Colom twice to a federal judge seat during his presidency. Hyde-Smith blocked the nomination until it stalled and was returned to the president.

Colom's AI-generated video

Though not a political ad, an AI-generated video depicting Hyde-Smith shared by Colom's campaign caught the attention of Republican officials in late October.

The video shows a figure that resembles Hyde-Smith running from reporters questioning her voting record and stance on health care. Mississippi Republican Party Chair Mike Hurst sent Attorney General Lynn Fitch a letter questioning whether the video was legal, and Fitch ordered Colom to take it down from social media.

Fitch wrote that the post may have violated a 2024 law prohibiting people from sharing "deepfakes" in the lead-up to an election. The law makes exceptions for parody and satire, which Colom's campaign argued that the video falls under.

Colom removed the video from social media on Oct. 23.

Bea Anhuci is the state government reporter for the Clarion Ledger. She has covered Mississippi politics, including the ups and downs of the U.S. Senate race between Scott Colom and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, since the start of 2026. Email her at [email protected].