Trump heads to Mississippi as Democrats put deep-red states in play

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Oct 26, 2026

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President Donald Trump headed to Mississippi on Monday as Democrats hope to put more very deep-red states in play in next week’s midterm congressional elections.

With Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., locked in a surprisingly close contest with Democrat Scott Colom, Trump was aiming to rev up his MAGA base to vote amid growing signs of an impending Democratic blue wave.

Colom, who pundits credit with running a strong campaign in a state Trump won by 23% last year, is vowing to attend the MAGA rally in the town of Corinth to hear Trump’s message and talk to voters.

“I’m going to ask those voters what matters to them, because they actually deserve a senator that will listen to them, that actually cares about what they think, actually cares about what they’re going through,” Colom told NBC News. “So I’m going to show up, and I’m going to listen.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if Trump’s campaign would allow Colom inside the Crossroads Arena where the event was scheduled.

Colom, an affable former prosecutor, grabbed voters attention with a viral ad that attacked Hyde-Smith for answering a question about rising beef prices under Trump by suggesting Mississippians have “so many proteins to choose from.”

“Pick another protein?” one voter scoffs in the ad. “I’d rather pick another senator instead.”

Several Democrats have traveled to the state this month to campaign for Colom, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, who is hoping to juice support among Black voters.

Last week, the Senate Democrats’ top super PAC announced a $1.2 million ad campaign in the state, an unusual move in a state that hasn’t elected a Democratic senator in 44 years. Several political forecasters have shifted the race from solid to likely Republican.

For Trump, the rally is the latest stop in what pundits have dubbed his “red-state rescue mission.”

With his approval ratings at historic lows, Trump is signaling that Republicans fear he could do more harm than good in swing states and even some red-leaning battlegrounds.

Instead he’s mostly hopscotching through states and districts where he won reelection by wide margins, a strategy dictated by Democrats success in mounting competitive races even in some deep-red enclaves.

Most analysts believe Democrats are very likely to win the House of Representatives. They give the opposition party good odds to also flip the four or more GOP-held seats it would take to regain control of the Senate as well.

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