密西西比州杰克逊讯 —— 当地检察官斯科特·科洛姆去年底宣布参选时，在这一深红州似乎胜算渺茫。
JACKSON, Miss. — When Scott Colom, a local district attorney, announced his candidacy late last year, it seemed like a long shot in a ruby red state.
但到今年10月，距离选民纷纷投出选票还有一个月，他已信心满满。
But by October of this year, a month before votes came pouring in for him, he was confident.
“我们没有数亿美元资金投入竞选 —— 我们是挨家挨户走访、参加一个个节日庆典，赢得支持的，”科洛姆在密西西比海岸的一次拉票活动中说。“我们会让许多人大跌眼镜，但我不会惊讶。密西西比人民支持这场竞选：他们明白密西西比至关重要。”据美联社周三晚间判定，科洛姆以微弱优势击败共和党参议员辛迪·海德-史密斯，成为今年中期选举中最令人震惊的冷门之一。
"We didn't have hundreds of million dollars to come in to spend – we did it going door to door, festival to festival, earning support," Colom said at a canvassing event on the Mississippi coast. "We're gonna shock a lot of people, but I'm not gonna be shocked. The people of Mississippi are behind this campaign: they understand Mississippi matters." Colom narrowly defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, according to a race call by The Associated Press on Wednesday evening, marking one of the most stunning upsets of the midterm elections this year.
以关注民生负担翻转红县 科洛姆以不足五千票的优势获胜，仍有极小部分选票未计。
Flipping red counties with a focus on affordability Colom won by less than five thousand votes, with a small fraction of the vote still left to be counted.
他不仅横扫传统上倾向民主党的地区，如拥有州府杰克逊的欣兹县，还拿下了传统上投票给共和党的地区，如福里斯特县 —— 特朗普总统在2024年在那里获得约58%的选票。
While he swept areas of Mississippi that have traditionally leaned left, like Hinds County, home to Jackson, the state capital, he also picked up places that have traditionally voted Republican, like Forrest County, which President Trump won in 2024 with about 58 percent of the vote.
科洛姆自2016年起担任该州第16司法辖区检察官。该辖区包括他的家乡哥伦布市，位于朗兹县 —— 该地区选民基础同样偏向右翼。
Colom has been the district attorney for the state's 16th judicial district since 2016. That includes his hometown of Columbus, Mississippi, in Lowndes County – an area that's also got a right-leaning voter base.
科洛姆以触手可及的医疗保健、挽救农村医院和减轻民生负担为竞选纲领。他表示，在共和党占多数的地区工作，让他认识到解决这些问题需要两党合作。
Colom ran on accessible healthcare, saving rural hospitals and affordability. He said that working in a Republican-majority area informed the need for bipartisanship in tackling those issues.
“我相信，大多数密西西比人更爱我们的州，而不是恨民主党或爱共和党，”科隆说。“他们希望自己的孩子拥有好的学校……他们希望确保如果年轻人想留在密西西比，就能找到工作。他们希望医院能够继续营业。”虽然科隆并不惊讶他的诉求今年在选民中产生共鸣，但他在2023年因联邦司法提名在美国参议院停滞而面临障碍，当时时任总统乔·拜登提名他担任联邦法官。密西西比州参议员、共和党人罗杰·威克表示将支持他的提名。
"I believed that the majority of the Mississippians love our state more than they hate the Democratic party or love the Republican party," Colom said. "They want their kids to have good schools. ... they want to be able to make sure that young people, if they want to stay in Mississippi, can have a job. They want the hospitals to stay open." While Colom isn't surprised that his message resonated this year with voters, he faced obstacles when a federal judicial nomination stalled in the U.S. Senate in 2023, when then-President Joe Biden nominated him for a federal judgeship. Mississippi's Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican, indicated he would support his nomination.
州参议院初级参议员辛迪·海德-史密斯阻挠了他。她引用了亿万慈善家乔治·索罗斯在科隆竞选地区检察官期间的捐款，科隆在2023年称这些捐款是给一个独立政治行动委员会，而非他的竞选活动。
The state's Junior Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith blocked him. She cited donations from billionaire philanthropist George Soros around Colom's run for DA, which in 2023, Colom said were to an independent PAC – not his campaign.
她还在当时向《密西西比自由新闻》提供的声明中称科隆反对保护女性运动员的立法。
She also said he opposed legislation to protect female athletes in a statement provided to the Mississippi Free Press at the time.
在致海德-史密斯的信中，科隆表示不清楚她所指为何，并指出他已签署声明，承诺不会利用执法资源将为跨性别青少年提供性别认同护理的医生定性为犯罪。
In a letter to Hyde-Smith, Colom said he didn't know what she was referring to and noted that he'd signed a statement saying he wouldn't use law enforcement resources to criminalize doctors who offer gender affirming care to transgender youth.
他在信中还说明，如果他被确认任命为法官，任何个人观点都与他的“日常工作”无关，并请求参议员重新考虑——她未予采纳。
He also stated in the letter that if he was confirmed as a judge, any of his personal views would be irrelevant to his "daily work." And he asked the senator to reconsider – she didn't.
三年后，她在选举中与他竞争。选举之夜，她自信地对支持者说：“我阻止了斯科特·科隆成为联邦法官，你们也阻止了他成为美国参议员。”然而她最终落败，并于周三晚上发表声明承认选败，称她尊重密西西比选民的决定。一场“改变结果”的险胜科隆承认，全国民主党领袖的关注以及本党的竞选资金今年到位较晚，但他指出，真正起决定性作用的是本州选民给予其竞选活动的关注。
Three years later, she was defending her seat from him. She was confident, on election night, that she'd beat him, telling her supporters, "I blocked Scott Colom from being a federal judge, and you blocked him from being U.S. senator." She instead lost and on Wednesday night, she issued a statement conceding the race, saying she respects the decision of Mississippi voters. A narrow victory that 'made a difference' Colom recognized that attention from national Democratic leaders, and his party's campaign funds, came late this year, but he noted that it was the attention his campaign received from voters within the state that made the difference.
“他们以我们很长一段时间以来未曾见过的方式理解自己选票的力量，因为如果你看看这些得票差距，当然，每个人所做的一切都起了作用，”在选举结果宣布前几天，科隆在杰克逊市对记者说。
"They understand the power of their vote in ways that we really haven't seen in a long period of time, because if you look at these margins, certainly everything that everybody did made a difference," Colom told reporters in Jackson just days before the election was called.
作为民主党人当选本身也绝非易事。上一次密西西比州派民主党人进入参议院还是1982年，而击败现任议员则要追溯到1942年。
Being elected as a Democrat is no small feat either. The last time Mississippi sent a Democrat to the Senate was 1982 and an incumbent hasn't been defeated since 1942.
科隆现在还拥有一项殊荣：他是重建时期以来该州首位黑人参议员。这是他引以为豪之处——但并非他安于现状的资本。
Colom now also holds the distinction of being the state's first Black senator since Reconstruction. It's something he's proud of – but not the laurels he's resting on.
“我的工作是做一名参议员，让下一位拥有职业道德、愿景、价值观、并想成为联邦参议员的非裔美国人更容易实现这一目标，”科隆说。“我是一个持续出现在社区、接受尖锐提问、阐述我的、你知道的、践行我价值观的人。如果我能做到这一点，就会让下一位更容易因其品格而非肤色被评判。”
"My job is to be a senator that makes it easier for the next African American that has the work ethic, the vision, the values, and they want to be United States senator, make it easier for them," Colom said. "I am a person that is continuing to show up in the community and take the tough questions and explain my, you know, live my values. And if I do that, it makes it easier for the next person to be judged by their character and not their skin color."
尽管他的胜利具有历史意义，但他的竞选活动也引起了轰动——尤其是在社交媒体上。在接受WLOX采访时，海德-史密斯针对牛肉负担能力问题回答建议民众“换一种蛋白质”。科隆以一则竞选广告反击，建议民众“换一位参议员”。
While his victory is historic, his campaign has also made waves – especially on social media. In an interview with WLOX, Hyde-Smith responded to questions about beef affordability by suggesting folks pick a different protein. Colom hit back, with a campaign ad, suggesting folks pick another senator instead.
最终，全国开始关注这场选举。大选前约两周，参议院少数党领袖舒默相关的超级政治行动委员会捐赠了120万美元用于广告投放。
Eventually, the rest of the country started listening. About two weeks before the election, the PAC associated with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer donated $1.2 million for advertising.
此外，几位知名民主党人也最终加入了科洛姆的竞选活动：前副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯、前交通部长皮特·布蒂吉格、前总统比尔·克林顿以及佐治亚州美国参议员拉斐尔·沃诺克，仅举几例。
And, several big name Democrats also ended up joining Colom on the campaign trail: former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, to name a few.
科洛姆走遍了全州——从海岸到首府，一直到田纳西州边界。在密西西比三角洲期间，他表示自己在参议院想要做的事情都源于他的家乡哥伦布。
Colom traveled the whole state – from the coast to the capital, up to the Tennessee border. While in the Mississippi Delta, he said what he wants to do while in the Senate all goes back to his home of Columbus.
“我一直致力于努力让我的社区变得更好，努力让我的城市变得更好，努力让我的州变得更好，而这就是我竞选美国参议院的全部意义所在，”科洛姆说。“这是我家族世代相传的服务的延续，我是在我的社区和教会的养育下长大的，它们教导我要回馈社会，这就是我此刻这样做的原因。”
"I've always been committed to trying to make my community better, trying to make my city better, trying to make my state better, and that's what running for United States Senate is all about for me," Colom said. "It's a continuation of a service that runs in my family and I was raised [by] my community and my church to give back and that's why I'm doing it in this moment."