Why GOP attempt to 'dismantle black political power’ backfired

Today, Scott Colom is thanking Republican  Cindy Hyde Smith for her service one day. after the Democrat officially defeated her  to become the next US senator from deep red. Mississippi. The projection came in yesterday, 8  days after election day, making Colom the first. African-American to hold any statewide office in  Mississippi since the 1880s. In a post, Colom, whose appointment to a federal judgeship  was blocked by Hyde Smith back in 2023, said the race was never personal as he shared this  part of an interview his father gave to our Laura.

Coats. In victory, you want to not be critical  of other people. Uh uh Cindy Hyde Smith um is a. person who's been in service many years and uh  she's our competitor but she's not our enemy. We're going to talk about this now. A historic win  with Jamie Harrison who is chair of the Democratic.

National Committee previously. He is currently  the host of the At Your Table podcast. Jamie, this is uh this is just a huge win. What does this  mean for Democrats, for black voters? Because this. is historic. It is historic. And congratulations  to my friend and brother Scott Cologne. I'm glad. I went to Mississippi and campaigned for campaign  with him. But listen, Scott Cologne didn't just. break a political barrier. He he actually broke  a political assumption. Uh you know, Mississippi.

isn't just about this one Senate seat. It's  about the future of the South. It's about black. political power. It's about the Democratic party.  And what we saw this past year coming out of the. Klay decision, we saw Republicans in across the  South trying to actually dismantle black political. power. We saw it here in South Carolina where  they tried to eliminate the seat that Jim Clber. uh currently occupies. You know, it took us  95 years uh to go from number eight uh black.

congressman to number nine black congressman.  So, what we're witnessing right now, Brianna, is one of the most remarkable expansions of black  political power since reconstruction. Uh how many? Six black governors if you include the Virgin  Islands. Seven black United States centers. The. CBC I believe will be at 66, the largest it's  ever been. Uh, and so that's what you get when.

when people feel as though their political power  and their voices are trying to be eliminated, they rise up. Could national Democrats have done  more, do you think? Yes, we could have. I mean, we could have picked up a seat in Louisiana. Uh,  no, no, no, Jamie. I mean, could they have done. more to help these candidates? Because obviously,  uh, voters felt very passionately about this. There was a lot of work that went into these  campaigns. Uh, but could National Democrats,

the party, with the money, with the organization,  could they have done even more to buoy some of. these candidates? No. And and that's what I  was answering. Yes, we could have. The party. could have done more and should have done more.  You know, we could have picked up Jamie Davis in. Louisiana. that race. We lost that race by less  than 1% and Jamie didn't get any real support. I. endorsed him and a few others, but he didn't  get really much support. Uh Angie Nixon down.

in Florida, we could have picked up Germaine  uh Johnson who ran for governor here in South. Carolina. If we just had a fraction of the support  and the money that went to some other states, we could have leveraged that money to really uh  push out more wins. And so we have to do more. I. give credit to Ken Martin. Uh he has continued  a 50 state strategy, a 57 states and territory. strategy that I uh invested in that Tom Perez did.  But it can't just be the DNC. It has to be more.

I also give credit to the DC uh because they even  leveraged they went out and got a $25 million loan. to put more money into some of these races. But  you know, some of these other committees have to. step up. some of these other packs have to step  up. We cannot continue to ignore the South. We. can't continue to say that black voters are the  backbone of the Democratic party, but we don't.

invest in those particular voters in terms of  real investments on the ground. And so there's. a lot more that we have to do and we could have  gained more had we invested more. Okay. Some of. these other committees. Okay. What what committee  are you talking about? You're you're saying the. DRIP did a good DSCC. Is that who you're saying  should have done more? Well, I I I I I think the. DSC could have done more. I I think that uh I  think, you know, Senate Majority Pat could have. done more. You know, I I the DGA could have done  more. And I hope that they see now that you can't.

take the South for granted. I know what people  normally think. Listen, I've been in in in those. in that seat, right, as overseeing a national  committee and I know how hard it is. You got. limited dollars and you're trying to make the best  bet. And so I I understand that, but sometimes. when you see that things are going a certain  way, you have to leverage those moments and. those opportunities. The DEC did that. They took  out a $25 million loan to say, you know what, the.

donors aren't giving us all the dollars, but we  still have more opportunities out there. We just. got to do that. And we can't let the past dictate  what we do in the future. Right? When you see that. black voters are turning out at historical rates  across the south, then you say so something's. going differently this time around. Let's look at  some of these other seats and see if there's some. opportunities there that even in this last minute  that we can make an investment and push. And.

um I I also want to ask you as we're looking at  how this new Congress is going to govern a as. the final elections are being called, the incoming  Democratic majority, they're looking at leadership. battles ahead on Capitol Hill. Congresswoman  Electro, who is a Democratic socialist, told this to our Laura Coats last night. What  I'll say is that it has been disappointing how. undemocratic this process has felt. I primar  incumbent. I fiercely believe in the importance. of competitive elections and it feels like a lot  of our class are just coming in and you know being.

told this is what the leadership is going to be.  Our responsibility now is to come in and say fine. this is the agenda that we are being that we were  sent here to do. That's the trade-off. It might. be a so-called coronation but you have demands.  We have demands. Jamie, I wonder what you think. about that considering yes there are six new DSA  members. I think there's eight total, maybe some. others obviously who are aligned with the DSA, but  you have dozens and dozens of Democrats who won in.

the on the House side anyways in these states  where Trump won in their districts. What do. what do you think as you hear obviously a little  frustration there from uh the congresswoman elect? Yeah, listen. I I think the the one thing the  advice I wrote a book about Capitol Hill and how. you climb the hill and how you navigate the hill.  The big thing as a new member is understand the.

process. You know, get to understand what you can  do in order to to deliver back home. Uh you know, in these leadership elections, they happen and  they happen very quickly. And as a new member, you. know, you that's the first thing that you actually  get an opportunity to vote on. The reason why you. probably don't see a whole lot of competition  in some of the leadership elections is because. the caucus generally is pretty happy with the  leadership that they have. This leadership just. delivered probably the largest victory that we  have seen for a house minority in history. Right?

And so therefore there's no opposition because  people are happy that this leadership team has. helped to deliver. Hakee Jeff has been all over  the place, raised more money than anybody ever in. this uh in that role, has gotten more discharge  petitions uh onto the floor and passed than any. other minority leader in history. And so the  caucus is pretty happy with the leadership that. they have. Now it's taking the next step, which is  we know who our leaders are going to be. What is.

our agenda going to be? And that's where I think  these new members can really play a big part. And I know leader Jeff, soon to be speaker uh  elect Jeff will really want to lean in and get all. of their fresh ideas and and bring their energy  to bear uh to get this agenda passed and and.