Black MS Senate Candidate Ty Pinkins Responds to Claims He Took Votes From Scott Colom
Ty Pinkins is answering a question that has followed Mississippi’s historic U.S. Senate race: Did his independent campaign cost Democrat Scott Colom votes? Pinkins, a Black man, received nearly 20,000 votes. Now, with Colom and Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith separated by just over 2,000 votes, Pinkins is defending his decision to stay in the race, arguing that he drew voters away from Republicans rather than Democrats.
In a recent interview with Roland Martin, Pinkins argued that staying in the historic race was the only way to give Scott a chance at winning against the Republican incumbent.
“The only way either one of us would have a chance is if the independent holds [Hyde-Smith] below 50%,” Pinkins told Martin. He pointed to county-level results, saying 77% of his votes came from traditionally Republican counties and that 12 of his top 13 vote-getting counties were Republican strongholds.
But while Pinkins said his campaign actually helped Colom stretch his short lead above Hyde-Smith, Martin quickly pushed back, arguing that Pinkins, a former Democrat, spent much of his campaign bashing Colom instead of campaigning beside him.
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Martin added that both Colom and Pinkins are members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., which should have made a collaboration even. Yet, according to Pinkins, he never had the opportunity to talk directly with Colom about his plan to counter Hyde-Smith.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Pinkins addressed his decision to stay in the race. In a recent interview with CNN, Pinkins also cited polling conducted in April that showed approximately 70% of potential supporters were traditionally Republican voters. He said that pattern continued throughout the summer and into the fall, reinforcing his belief that his candidacy ultimately weakened Hyde-Smith’s support.
Pinkins told CNN, “You can’t assume that all of those votes would have went right back to Scott Colom when a Republican has won 15 straight times over the last 50 years in this state.”
He’s referencing Mississippi’s electoral history, when, in the 1978 Senate race, Republican Thad Cochran won with 45.3% amid two independent candidates, including Charles Evers, the New York Times previously reported.
“If you look at the history of voting in Mississippi, you have to take into consideration that only on two occasions over the past 50 years has a Republican been held below 50%,” Pinkins continued. “And on both of those occasions, an independent was in the race.”
Local election data provides some support for his geographic argument. According to WTVA, Pinkins received 3% of the vote in Harrison County, 2.4% in DeSoto, 2.3% in Rankin, 2.7% in Jackson, 4.5% in Hancock, 1.5% in Madison, 3.3% in Jones, 4% in Pearl River, and 3% in Lamar. These are counties that have traditionally leaned Republican. But that doesn’t give us the full story.
County results cannot establish how individual Pinkins voters would have voted had he not been on the ballot. Nor do they independently verify his claim that 77% of his supporters came from Republican counties. So that leaves the question of vote-splitting unresolved.
Still, Pinkins said he simply intended to challenge Hyde-Smith, not undermine Colom. And despite Colom and Pinkins running competitively in a deep red state, the independent expressed hope that Colom would ultimately prevail.
