Mississippi Senate race heads to an extended vote count and possible ballot battle

 Both campaigns say “thousands” of ballots are outstanding, as just a few dozen votes separate Democrat Scott Colom and GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

y Bridget Bowman and Gary Grumbach

The Mississippi Senate race may take days to resolve, as Democrat Scott Colom leads GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by just 65 votes in the current vote count.

And as more votes continue to be counted, all eyes are on an unknown number of ballots that could shift the result — and potentially lead to a very murky recount process.

Mississippi has not been a site of close vote counts and postelection drama in recent years. But Colom’s strong showing comes as Democrats swept several Senate races in red states across the country. While Democrats have a Senate majority without flipping Mississippi, it could be the party’s reddest pickup.

And it would mark another victory in a string of wins in the South, including in Texas and South Carolina, after years of struggle for Democrats in the region.

National operatives are descending on the state, with staff from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Elias Law Group on the ground as of Wednesday to lead the Democratic effort to ensure votes are counted, according to a source familiar with the effort who was granted anonymity to discuss legal strategy.

A partner with the Elias Law Group, which has served as the Colom campaign’s lawyers, told NBC News they were heading to Mississippi to investigate the outstanding vote.

“We’re prepared to litigate, though we were prepared for this for months,” Colom, a local prosecutor, said at a news conference Wednesday morning. “We have an army of lawyers. We have local lawyers. We have everybody involved to make sure the process is followed according to the law.”

Colom and Hyde-Smith’s campaign manager, Jake Monssen, both said Wednesday that there are “thousands” of outstanding ballots. But the exact number remains unclear.

There appear to be around 6,000 mail ballots that were distributed but had not yet been returned as of Monday, according to data from the Mississippi secretary of state’s office, which did not return a request for comment. Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day can be counted in Mississippi if they are received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 10.

An unknown number of so-called affidavit ballots, also known as provisional ballots, are also outstanding. Those were issued to voters who do not have the proper ID or are not on the list of registered voters.

Mikell Bolden, the Mississippi Democratic Party executive director, told NBC News in a phone interview Wednesday that the party’s election hotline received around 2,000 calls on Tuesday from across the state, including from many voters who were told they had to cast affidavit ballots.

Voters said they were certain they were registered to vote, Bolden said, but were told they were not on the voter roll when they went to cast their ballots. And Bolden said those voters could not check their own registration status, because the Mississippi secretary of state’s website had crashed.

Bolden said the state party, Colom campaign and national party are working to reach out to voters via phone calls, text messages and robocalls to ensure those affected return their ballots or address issues related to their affidavit ballots, like showing the proper ID, by Nov. 10, which would allow them to be counted.

Abdul El-Sayed holds early lead over Mike Rogers in Michigan US Senate race

 

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, left, speaks during a campaign rally at the Majestic Theatre, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Detroit. Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, right, speaks to the media after voting, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in White Lake. (AP Photos/Julia Demaree Nikhinson and Paul Sancya)

• Michigan voters have cast their ballots in the US Senate race between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers
• Contentious from the start, the race has attracted record outside spending and could decide which party controls Congress
• This story will be updated with the latest results as election officials across the state tally votesDETROIT — With polls closed across Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed leads Republican Mike Rogers in early vote tallies in the state’s hotly contested US Senate race.

  The race remains too close to call, however, with many of the early returns coming from Democratic areas like Oakland, Kent, Wayne and Washtenaw counties. Rogers held early leads in Eaton, Ottawa and Livingston counties, and the candidates were in a near-tie in Macomb County.

  Follow live results here: 

The race is among the most consequential in the country as both major parties fight for control of the Senate during the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term. 

Rogers, a former member of Congress who narrowly lost a bid for Senate in 2024, and El-Sayed, a former public health official who also ran for governor in 2018, are competing to replace retiring US Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat. 

Related: 

• More Michigan midterm election results
• Benson’s record: Election fights, faster DMV visits, transparency flop 
• James says he delivers results. What does his record show?

Recent polling has favored El-Sayed, and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report on Monday shifted the race from a tossup to leaning Democrat amid what’s expected to be a nationwide referendum on Trump and a Republican-majority Congress.

But Rogers has worked to exploit deep divides among Michigan Democrats that emerged in a bitter primary as he seeks to flip the seat and stop Democrats’ chances at total majority control of Congress. 

Those long-simmering Democratic tensions exploded to the surface in the race’s final days, with El-Sayed’s primary rival Haley Stevens shocking her party by endorsing Rogers. 

In a final pitch to voters in Rochester Hills on Monday evening, Rogers characterized the race as a battle for the “heart and soul” of the nation, expressing confidence that “we’re going to surprise some people” with a Republican victory. 

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks with reporters before a Souls to the Polls campaign event at Northend Church of God in Christ, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

And at a Monday night Detroit rally, El-Sayed argued his opponent and the Trump administration have been more focused on his Muslim faith than the affordability issues voters are facing. 

“They don’t want to talk about gas and groceries,” he said. “They want to talk about me and my name and my faith.”

What voters said

El-Sayed has urged the US to end support of Israel amid wars in Gaza and Iran, arguing the federal government could use that money to help Americans at home. It’s among the issues that divided Democrats in the primary, and remained a top issue for some voters on Tuesday. 

In Huntington Woods, 55-year-old Lauren Slutsky described herself as a lifelong Jewish Democratic but said she voted for Rogers because El-Sayed “hasn’t proven that he will stand against antisemitism and hate.”

At the same polling place, Steve Gold stood wearing a “Jews for Abdul” shirt and praised El-Sayed’s push for Medicare for All, calling it “shameful that the United States has not provided healthcare to everybody after 250 years.”

In northern Michigan, Jen Mahaffy of Torch Lake Township said she voted for El-Sayed because she believes he “is going to lead our state to better things.”

Mahaffy called Stevens’ endorsement of Rogers “very disappointing” and said she didn’t agree with the rationale.

“He approaches differences of opinion with humility and grace,” she said of El-Sayed, “and I think just because he didn’t come out and immediately denounced doesn’t mean that he’s an anti-semite.”

If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim in the US Senate, and some voters told Bridge they were uncomfortable with that prospect. 

“I come from a Christian background,” said Walker Darnell, a first-time voter and student at Michigan State University.  “I respect all religions and faiths, (but) I just personally can’t get behind someone with a Muslim faith. So that’s why I’m supporting Mike Rogers.”

A national focus

Always contentious, the US Senate race has become supercharged in recent weeks as high-profile surrogates descended on Michigan and outside spending poured in. 

Both former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump headlined Michigan rallies to support candidates from their respective parties. 

Other surrogates who campaigned in the state include progressives like US Sen. Bernie Sanders and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Republicans like Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson. 

The US Senate seat is key for both parties in the quest for majority control of the chamber. 

National Democrats are hoping to take advantage of favorable headwinds to pick up seats from Republicans in states like Texas and Maine. But to make the math work for a majority, most experts agree the party must keep Michigan, a state that’s elected Democrats to the Senate for decades. 

Peters’ decision not to seek re-election opened a competitive Democratic primary for his replacement, and Republicans saw a rare opportunity for a flip this cycle in Rogers, who ran in 2024 and only narrowly lost to now-US Sen. Elissa Slotkin.

Spending frenzy

Voters’ TV screens, phones and mailboxes have also been flooded with campaign ads related to the race, funded by record spending from candidates and outside groups alike. 

The contest is far-and-away the most expensive election in Michigan’s history, with more than $270 million in disclosed spending as of last month, not counting additional undisclosed “dark money” spending. That’s up from $217 million in disclosed spending in Rogers’ 2024 race against Slotkin. 

El-Sayed set a Michigan fundraising record last quarter, raising $30.7 million to Rogers’ $9.7 million. He also saw a fundraising surge after Stevens’ eleventh-hour Rogers endorsement, reporting raising $2.4 million on Sunday alone. 

Rogers has long held the advantage in outside spending support, however with GOP-aligned groups investing heavily in the race. As of mid-October, outside groups had a combined spend of nearly $95 million to boost Rogers in the general election, compared to $42 million for El-Sayed. Millions more was spent on political advertising in the final days of the race.

What shaped the race 

Few issues motivated Michigan voters quite like the economy, with high costs of groceries, gas, utilities and healthcare dominating the conversation. 

That could be bad news for Rogers and other Republicans with ties to the Trump administration, as critics blame the Iran war, steep tariffs on foreign goods and other federal actions for the current affordability crisis. 

Rogers initially backed the Trump administration actions but more recently called for an end to the Iran War and trade battle with Canada. 

El-Sayed, a progressive, entered the general election bruised from a primary battle dominated by divisions over the US government’s involvement in the Middle East and the direction of the Democratic Party.

Rogers has worked to exploit those fissures, appealing directly to Michigan’s Jewish population and other Democratic-leaning voters who had concerns about El-Sayed in the primary. 

A 20-Year-Old Was One Pilot of the Jet That Plunged to Earth in Florida

 

The private jet, which had been traveling from Texas to the Bahamas, crashed down in a residential area of Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday.

Nathalia Filgueiras received a pilot’s license at 17, had logged more than 1,300 hours of flight time and was the co-pilot on Sunday, her mother said in an interview.

One of the pilots of a private jet that plummeted to the ground on Sunday afternoon in Florida, killing all nine people on board, was a 20-year-old aviator named Nathalia Filgueiras, her mother said on Monday.

Ms. Filgueiras, of Boca Raton, Fla., had logged more than 1,300 hours of flight time and received her pilot’s license at 17, according to her mother, Camila Corteleti. She said her daughter had worked for Upper Jets, a private charter firm based in Fort Lauderdale, and was co-pilot of Sunday’s flight.One of the pilots of a private jet that plummeted to the ground on Sunday afternoon in Florida, killing all nine people on board, was a 20-year-old aviator named Nathalia Filgueiras, her mother said on Monday.

Ms. Filgueiras, of Boca Raton, Fla., had logged more than 1,300 hours of flight time and received her pilot’s license at 17, according to her mother, Camila Corteleti. She said her daughter had worked for Upper Jets, a private charter firm based in Fort Lauderdale, and was co-pilot of Sunday’s flight.

The other pilot on the jet has not been identified, and it’s not known who was at the controls when the plane began to fall.

Ms. Corteleti said her daughter had been passionate about flying since childhood, a love forged soaring the skies with her father, who is a recreational pilot. She recalled that her daughter, as a child, used to enjoy going to the Boca Raton Airport to watch planes taking off and landing, and she announced when she was about 12 that she wanted to be a pilot.

The other pilot on the jet has not been identified, and it’s not known who was at the controls when the plane began to fall.

Ms. Corteleti said her daughter had been passionate about flying since childhood, a love forged soaring the skies with her father, who is a recreational pilot. She recalled that her daughter, as a child, used to enjoy going to the Boca Raton Airport to watch planes taking off and landing, and she announced when she was about 12 that she wanted to be a pilot.

“She loved the freedom,” Ms. Corteleti said. “It was completely different seeing the world from the top.”

Three years ago, Ms. Filgueiras, then a senior in high school, was interviewed by TV news reporters, because she had gotten her private pilot’s license even before her driver’s license. “I like being different than everyone,” she told CBS12, a news outlet based in South Florida.

Efforts to reach Upper Jets were not immediately successful.

The company’s plane, a Learjet 60, which had been traveling from Texas to the Bahamas, crashed down in a residential area of Palm Beach County, Fla., leaving a smoldering crater and wreckage in the street.

The authorities said that everyone on the plane had died, but did not identify them. Officials said it did not appear that any people on the ground had been injured.

Thomas B. Chapman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters at a Monday afternoon news conference in Florida that investigators had not yet recovered a cockpit voice recorder, and that they could not yet say whether one was on the plane.

The agency has just begun documenting the crash scene, which will take several days, said Timothy W. Monville, an investigator with the board. “The biggest obstacle that we’re going to have is recovering the major wreckage from the impacted crater on the roadway,” he said.

In the moments before the plane crashed, a pilot — the authorities have not confirmed whether it was Ms. Filgueiras — radioed air traffic controllers. She said that the plane was facing rain, and “light, clear ice that is manageable, and moderate turbulence,” according to archived communications with air traffic controllers in Miami.

The woman asked whether the plane could climb to 37,000 feet, but, soon after, she desperately declared mayday, a life-threatening emergency. The woman screamed into the radio that the plane was descending at a rate of 20,000 feet per minute. “We’re going to crash into the ground,” she said.

Dr. Robert Joslin, an aviation expert and associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, said in an interview that a two-person cockpit typically has a pilot flying and a pilot monitoring, or P.F. and P.M. — positions commonly described as pilot and co-pilot.

It is not uncommon for young aviators to serve as pilot monitors on small jets, he said, so that they can log flight hours and move onto bigger aircraft.

Given that Ms. Filgueiras seems to have been handling radio communications, she was almost certainly the pilot monitoring, Dr. Joslin said. Her work probably involved not only communications but also keeping a close eye on the cockpit’s many instruments and gauges, while the pilot flying would have had more physical control over the aircraft.

Jared Isaacman, the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, wrote on social media on Monday that it was too early to speculate on what might have gone wrong.

Mr. Isaacman said that Ms. Filgueiras “was doing her job, communicating with A.T.C. right to the end in a terrifying situation.”

“She likely knew before many of those calls that she was going to die,” he said.