Democrats on track to flip Mississippi Senate seat for first time since 1989

Mississippi is about to go blue. Democrat Scott Colom is now expected to win the state's US Senate election, according to a breaking post from @KobeissiLetter. That would make him the first Democrat to hold a Mississippi Senate seat since 1989.

The pickoff is part of a wider wave. Colom's win would be the 8th US Senate seat Democrats have flipped in the Midterm Elections. According to @KobeissiLetter, that marks their largest gain in the chamber since 2008.

The 1989 benchmark is a long time coming. Mississippi has sent Republicans to the Senate for more than three decades straight, making it one of the party's most dependable strongholds in the South.

If the result holds, Democrats will pad their Senate ranks with a seat few had penciled in at the start of the cycle. The flip would also carry symbolic weight, breaking a streak that has outlasted every midterm since the late 1980s.

Counting is still the final word, and the expectation comes from @KobeissiLetter rather than an official call. Eyes now turn to the remaining races and what an 8-seat swing means for the balance of power on Capitol Hill.