JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Scott Colom, a Democratic district attorney in Mississippi, is running for U.S. Senate, challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Colom announced his candidacy in a video Wednesday that criticized Hyde-Smith for voting for President Donald Trump’s ’ big beautiful bill ’, a sprawling piece of legislation that included Medicaid cuts, tax breaks and new money for national defense and deportations.
“Her last vote is going to run up our debt, kick over 100,000 Mississippians off their healthcare and put our hospitals at risk all so billionaires in California and New York can get a tax break,” Colom said of Hyde-Smith in his announcement video. “That's not who I am.”
Colom also said he would fight to eliminate income taxes for teachers and law enforcement and boost wages for Mississippians.
Colom joins the race alongside U.S. Army Veteran Ty Pinkins, a former Democrat who announced he would be challenging Hyde-Smith as an Independent earlier this year.
“We welcome Scott Colom to the race and congratulate Senator Chuck Schumer and national Democrats on their recruit," Nathan Calvert, the communications director for Hyde-Smith's campaign, said in a statement. “Make no mistake — Mississippians know the difference between conservative values that work and the liberal Biden/Colom policies that have failed us.”
It is not the first time Colom and Hyde-Smith have clashed. In 2023, Hyde-Smith blocked President Joe Biden's nomination of Colom to a federal judgeship.
Hyde-Smith cited concerns about Colom's connection to George Soros, a New York billionaire who gave money to Mississippi Safety and Justice, a political action committee that supported Colom’s 2015 race for district attorney. Soros did not contribute directly to Colom’s campaign.
In an attempt to sway Hyde-Smith, Colom wrote to her that he did not request the funds from Soros and did not know the money would be contributed to his campaign.
She also criticized Colom for opposing “legislation to protect female athletes,” after Colom signed a letter in June 2021 condemning efforts to criminalize gender-affirming care for transgender people.
Colom is running to flip a seat in a state where Republicans control all statewide offices and both chambers of the Legislature. Democrats have attempted to gain a foothold in the state in recent years. In 2023, Democrat Brandon Presley was narrowly defeated in a gubernatorial election by Gov. Tate Reeves, who received nearly 51% of the vote.
Colom is the district attorney in Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay and Noxubee counties. He is the first Black prosecutor in those counties, defeating the longtime incumbent Forrest Allgood in 2015. Colom was unopposed when he won a second term in 2019.
FILE - Lowndes County District Attorney Scott Colom speaks at a news conference, July 6, 2016, in Columbus, Miss. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy, File)
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday met with family members of two Iowa National Guard members and a U.S. civilian who were killed in an attack in the Syrian desert.
The meeting was held at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before the remains of the deceased were transferred to their families. Trump was joining the families and top administration and military officials to watch the so-called dignified transfer of the remains.
The solemn dignified transfer ritual honors U.S. service members killed in action. Trump, who traveled to Dover several times in his first term, once described it as “the toughest thing I have to do” as president.
The two guardsmen killed in Syria on Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the U.S. Army. Both were members of the 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, and have been hailed as heroes by the Iowa National Guard.
Torres-Tovar's and Howard’s families were at Dover for the return of their remains, alongside Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, members of Iowa’s congressional delegation and leaders of the Iowa National Guard. Their remains will be taken to Iowa after the transfer.
A U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, identified Tuesday as Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, was also killed. Three other members of the Iowa National Guard were injured in the attack. The Pentagon has not identified them.
They were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
There is no formal role for a president at a dignified transfer other than to watch in silence, with all thoughts about what happened in the past and what is happening at Dover kept to himself for the moment. There is no speaking by any of the dignitaries who attend, with the only words coming from the military officials who direct the highly choreographed transfers.
Trump arrived without first lady Melania Trump, who had been scheduled to accompany him, according to the president's public schedule. Her office declined to elaborate, with spokesperson Nick Clemens saying the first lady "was not able to attend today.”
During the process at Dover, transfer cases draped with the American flag that hold the soldiers' remains are carried from the belly of a hulking C-17 military aircraft to a waiting vehicle under the watchful eyes of grieving family members. The vehicle then transports the remains to the mortuary facility at the base, where the fallen are prepared for burial at their final resting places.
Howard's stepfather, Jeffrey Bunn, has said Howard “loved what he was doing and would be the first in and last out.” He said Howard had wanted to be a soldier since he was a boy.
In a social media post, Bunn, who is chief of the Tama, Iowa, police department, said Howard was a loving husband and an “amazing man of faith.” He said Howard’s brother, a staff sergeant in the Iowa National Guard, would escort “Nate” back to Iowa.
Torres-Tovar was remembered as a “very positive” family-oriented person who always put others first, according to fellow Guard members who were deployed with him and issued a statement to the local TV broadcast station WOI.
Dina Qiryaqoz, the daughter of the civilian interpreter who was killed, said Wednesday in a statement that her father worked for the U.S. Army during the invasion of Iraq from 2003 to 2007. Sakat is survived by his wife and four adult children.
The interpreter was from Bakhdida, Iraq, a small Catholic village southeast of Mosul, and the family immigrated to the U.S. in 2007 on a special visa, Qiryaqoz said. At the time of his death, Sakat was employed as an independent contractor for Virginia-based Valiant Integrated Services.
Sakat's family was still struggling to believe that he is gone. “He was a devoted father and husband, a courageous interpreter and a man who believed deeply in the mission he served,” Qiryaqoz said.
Trump told reporters over the weekend that he was mourning the deaths. He vowed retaliation. The most recent instance of U.S. service members killed in action was in January 2024, when three American troops died in a drone attack in Jordan.
Saturday's deadly attack followed a rapprochement between the U.S. and Syria, bringing the former pariah state into a U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
Trump has forged a relationship with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the onetime leader of an Islamic insurgent group who led the ouster of former President Bashar Assad.
Trump, who met with al-Sharaa last month at the White House, said Monday that the attack had nothing to do with the Syrian leader, who Trump said was “devastated by what happened.”
During his first term, Trump visited Dover in 2017 to honor a U.S. Navy SEAL killed during a raid in Yemen, in 2019 for two Army officers whose helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, and in 2020 for two Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan when a person dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire.
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Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin and Darlene Superville in Washington, Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Washington, en route to Baltimore to attend the Army-Navy football game. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
This undated combo photo created with images released by the Iowa National Guard shows Sgts. William Nathaniel Howard, left, and Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar. (Iowa National Guard via AP)
