Scott Colom (00:20):
God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. For me, this journey started with a prayer, y'all. And in Mississippi, our prayers have often changed the course of history. For people that don't know, the first African American to be a United States senator was from the great state of Mississippi. His name was Hiram Revels. And the way he got to be a United States Senator was he was a minister and Natchez, Mississippi. He was elected to be in the State House, and when they were trying to figure out who was going to do the opening prayer, someone suggested Hiram Revels. He gave a prayer that was so powerful that people at that convention decided that he had a voice to be a United States Senator.
(01:26)
That's an example of the power of prayer. And throughout our history, there's so many people that lifted this state up through the power of prayer in very dark times. But we all know that prayer is only a part of our Mississippi faith tradition. You need faith. And I'll tell you, throughout this campaign, there were many times where I had to have faith. There were times that I couldn't get donors to answer the phone. They did not believe a moment like this was possible. But I kept the faith. There were times when I did my first town hall in Jackson, Mississippi, Frank Figgers helped me organize it. Less than 10 people showed up. But I kept the faith. I kept the faith. There were times when I was tired and I felt like I couldn't keep going, but I kept the faith.
(02:46)
And that is another tradition of our state. There's so many people that have faith in Mississippi at times where it seemed impossible. People like Medgar Evers. I can't help but think about Medgar Evers on Veterans Day, a moment like this, where he served his country and came home to Mississippi when they wouldn't let him vote. But he had faith that Mississippi could make progress. He had faith that one day everybody would have the right to vote. He had faith that a day like this was possible. God bless you, Medgar. God bless you, Medgar. God bless you. When you talk about faith, you can't forget Fannie Lou Hamer, who had faith that her being sick and tired could move a nation to understand that places like Mississippi have to matter. Who had faith that even after she became a national celebrity and she could have gone anywhere in the world, she came right back to Mississippi. She had faith, y'all. And right now we have several veterans of the civil rights movement who are a part of her tradition of faith. Let's please give them a round of applause y'all.
(04:41)
And I'll tell you, one of my mentors is the national president of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson. And one of the things that he told me a long time ago that always stuck with me is that in Mississippi, it's local people that make the difference. Not just the names that are recorded in history, but people that do the work without any expectation of recognition. And I'll tell you, it's local people that had faith that Mississippi could make progress, and it's local people, like the people out here, who have faith that we can win this election. So God bless you.
(05:30)
But as my mom would always tell me, faith without works is dead. And we worked this election, y'all. We worked. God didn't want us to get it the easy way. He wanted us to get it the Mississippi way. And I went out and had the opportunity to campaign all across this state and learn the stories of so many Mississippians. I'm reminded of the farmer named Michael from Oktibbeha County, who told me how the tariffs meant that he lost this customer that he had been relying on to sell his soybeans, and how that made the hard work of farming so much more difficult, and how this was a passion that he had that now became something where he was worried he was about to lose. But he continued to work.
(06:33)
I'm reminded of the single mother in George County who had three kids and told me that she has to drive to Alabama for work, and that the rise in gas prices as a result of the war in Iran meant that at the end of every month, she's relying on family and friends to determine whether she's going to make it. And she's worried that that support could run out. But she continued to work. She continued to work. On this campaign trail, I remember the woman I met in Hattiesburg that was a kidney plant survivor, and she told me how worried she was about these Medicaid cuts and what that was going to mean for her healthcare. But instead of just sitting at the house and complaining, she was volunteering on a campaign to make a difference. That is the work that makes Mississippi great.
(07:44)
For months and months, I've been telling everybody everywhere I go that we're going to win this election. I was saying it eight and nine months ago. Recently I've been saying it on the news. But every time I said it, I pointed out that people were going to give me too much credit for it, because it's not something that I did, y'all. It's something that we did. All I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this. I had the courage to believe in Mississippi. I had the courage to understand that we could show the country that Mississippi matters.
(08:50)
Now, there's so many people I have to thank who've kept me in prayers, who've had the faith, and who did the work. Now my wife thanked a lot of people, so I don't want to just repeat the people she thanked, but most importantly, I got to thank her. God bless Nadia Dale Colom. She sacrificed so much for this moment to be possible. She not only had to raise our two daughters a lot of times with me on the road, thank God she had Brenda Dale and Dorothy Colom to help, but she also was very involved in the campaign. She managed the food truck. She made that dream possible for me. She's been the love of my life. And as I tell people, I can never lose an election, because I've already won the most important one.
(10:11)
Nadia talked about how Lucy and Maddie performed so wonderfully under tough circumstances and I'm so proud of them. My mom, my dad, my brother, my sister-in-law, my aunt and aunties who sacrificed so much, who believed that this was possible, thank you all from the bottom of my heart, my cousins, everybody. Congressman Benny Thompson. Listen, I'm going to tell this real quick. Around December, him and Derrick and Diane Feldman, who I want to thank, let me thank all of them. Let me thank Derrick and Letitia Johnson, Diane Feldman. For the people that don't know, Diane is my political mentor and my friend. She's a great transplant to Mississippi, but she's been a great Mississippian and a great American. The three of them had a Zoom with me, and Gerard, my campaign manager, and they told me, they said, "Listen, we don't think the cavalry's coming. We think that the only chance you got is you better get out there and campaign."
(11:27)
Congressman Thompson looked me in the face and said, "You got to touch as many people as you can. You got to get them to believe that this is possible. You got to listen to them. You got to show up." And I did. But they knew something about me, because I got an identical twin brother and I'm pretty competitive. So the minute they told me I wasn't campaigning enough, I said, "I'm going to show them. I'm going to show them." And if I had not listened to them and I had not understood what Congressman Thompson was telling me about how to win a race in Mississippi, this moment would not have happened. So at the bottom of my heart, I hope Congressman Thompson understands that this victory is a testament to his leadership, his vision, and his political strategy.
(12:18)
I also have to thank my good friend, Patrick Gaspard. Whenever Mississippi has made progress, there have been people outside the state that believed in us when other people didn't. Patrick was as tough on me as you could imagine, but I loved it because I'm used to tough coaching. But he had the courage to understand what was required in this moment and he had the vision to believe that this was possible. So when the story of how this happened is written, we got to understand it couldn't have happened without Patrick Gaspard. Thank you so much, my friend.
(13:06)
Now I got to talk about the boy genius, Gerard Henderson. G. I met G when he was at Mississippi State. He took my mom's class and she told him he should intern with her son who was district attorney. And after a few months, he realized he didn't want to be a lawyer and he picked the only job harder than being a lawyer, being a campaign manager. But there's so much I can say about him. Truly I've come to love him as a brother. But what I would say the nation needs to know about Gerard Henderson, he has the one thing that you need from a campaign manager, is he believed in Scott Colom. God bless you, my friend. God bless you.
(14:05)
I got to thank my finance director, Amanda Hoover. Where's Amanda at? She probably ain't here. It's hard to get people to want to raise money for a race in Mississippi. That ain't easy fundraising. And for so long, she had to push me in ways that were so creative and so important. And when there were so many dark days when it felt like we were not going to be able to raise enough money to get our message out, she stayed in prayer, she had faith, and she was willing to do the work. So God bless you, Amanda Hoover. We couldn't have done this without you. And my whole campaign staff, all the people that donated, all the people that volunteered, the amazing Ryan Sells, KP, my brother who did the senator's ad, everybody who made this possible, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I can't name everybody, but God bless you. You all know how important you were for making this moment possible.
(15:07)
But I want to have a final word to every Mississippian, the ones that voted for me, the ones that didn't vote for me, and the ones that didn't vote. My commitment to you, each and every one of you, is that first, I'm going to treat your children like I want my children to be treated. I'm going to treat your parents the way I want my parents to be treated. I'm going to treat your future the way I want my future to be. My commitment is to be someone that continues to stay in prayer, continues to have faith, and continues to work to make every Mississippian's life better. That's what you're getting. And I make a solemn commitment to each and every Mississippian today. In every decision I make, I will never forget the most important thing is Mississippi matters. God bless y'all. God bless y'all. Thank y'all. God bless y'all. God bless y'all. Thank you so much. God bless you. We did it. We did it.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Ladies and gentlemen, Senator-elect Scott Colom and the Colom family.
Scott Colom (17:01):
God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Oh my God, [inaudible 00:17:02].
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Ladies and gentlemen... Ladies and gentlemen, Senator-elect Scott Colom and the Colom family. Give them another round of applause. Thank you for celebrating with us tonight and thank you again to Tougaloo College. Please exit safely, watch, follow the directions of the event staff and law enforcement and be patient as traffic-