Mississippi Democratic Senate nominee Scott Colom speaks at a rally in Columbus, Miss., headlined by former Vice President Kamala Harris on Oct. 22, 2026. Stephen Fowler/NPR hide caption

Stephen Fowler/NPR

COLUMBUS, Miss. — On paper, Mississippi's U.S. Senate race seems like the perfect place for a political upset this year, an assertion President Trump's Monday rally there seems to support.

It has the highest share of Black voters in the country, at close to 40%. It's a rural, agriculture-heavy state that is also among the poorest, so higher prices are felt harder.

But President Trump won the state by 23 points in 2024, and it's extremely racially polarized, meaning not enough white voters back Democrats for the party to win statewide.

In a midterm environment that has seen hundreds of millions of dollars poured into Senate races in conservative-heavy states like Iowa, Texas, Ohio and Alaska, and a last-minute flood of cash to Kansas , the Magnolia state has been left off of many peoples' radar — and…