Pinkins, a lawyer and military veteran, decided to stay in the race after an April poll demonstrated that his candidacy primarily pulled voters away from the Republican base rather than fellow candidate Scott Colom. To avoid splitting the vote with Colom, Pinkins restricted his summer campaign to roughly six appearances and avoided regions with substantial Black populations. His 20,010 votes now significantly surpass the razor-thin margin separating the leading candidates as ballot counting nears completion.
Key points
Ty Pinkins intentionally structured his campaign to siphon conservative ballots away from…: Ty Pinkins intentionally structured his campaign to siphon conservative ballots away from Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Disaffected Republican voters encouraged Pinkins to stay on the ballot as an alternative…: Disaffected Republican voters encouraged Pinkins to stay on the ballot as an alternative choice.
Campaign representatives for both Cindy Hyde-Smith and Scott Colom did not immediately is…: Campaign representatives for both Cindy Hyde-Smith and Scott Colom did not immediately issue comments.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
Longshot Mississippi Senate candidate Ty Pinkins at first wanted to win — but says he stayed in to spoil.
Pinkins told a local TV station he remained in the race after an April poll showed he had no chance to boost Democratic nominee Scott Colom's chances of beating Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Pinkins' purported strategy might pay off.
Colom is narrowly leading Hyde-Smith in ongoing counting by just 1,936 votes, a margin of just 0.2 percentage points with 96.2% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press. That margin is about one-tenth as large as Pinkins' 2.1-percentage-point share of the vote.
Pinkins has won just 20,010 votes so far out of the nearly 952,000 votes already counted.
"The only thing I did was stay in the race and let people shoot arrows at me," Pinkins said in an interview with WTVA in Mississippi on Thursday. "That is it. And that's a ... low price to pay to get someone in this race that I think can help people in the Delta and all across this state."
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