The message, which highlighted the Colom campaign’s commitment to cost cutting, capitalized on Hyde-Smith’s gaffe to the tune of more than 2.8 million views between X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook within the first 36 hours, according to the Clarion-Ledger. Former president Barack Obama’s video endorsement emphasizing Colom’s “Christian faith,” released just a day earlier, earned just over 700,000 views on the platforms in nearly double the time.

Colom currently has the edge in the historically deep-red state: If elected, he would become the first Democratic Mississippi Senator in more than 40 years—as part of the blue wave that swept the 2026 midterms, in which Democrats seized back control of both the House and Senate from MAGA-era Republicans. In Mississippi, which President Trump won by roughly 20 points in 2024, Hyde-Smith was favored to win. That is, until mid-October, when one of Colom’s campaign ads went viral, turning the Southern enclave into a surprise battleground state.

The day before Halloween, Colom made waves when he paid tribute to the Oscar-winning Ryan Coogler film Sinners, casting himself and his twin brother, Andrew, as fictional twins Smoke and Stack Moore, both portrayed by Michael B. Jordan in the movie. The film, which was set in the 1932 Mississippi Delta, follows the Black brothers as they try to keep white vampires away from their juke joint. The ad, titled “Sinators,” and released by Colom on October 30 with the disclaimer that “this is a joke!” shows the two men guarding a door as a blonde woman, who seems to be a proxy for Hyde-Smith, tries to enter. Colom says the duo have to “hold her off until the sun rises on Election Day” in the ad, which garnered more than 380,000 views on X alone prior to the November 3 election, as reported by the Sun Herald. If Colom wins, he would be Mississippi’s first Black senator since the Reconstruction era (1865–1877). VF has reached out to Coogler for comment on Colom’s campaign ad.