Live results: Mississippi Senate still close days after election - USA Today

Three days removed from midterm elections, Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic challenger Scott Colom are still in a bitterly narrow race for a Mississippi U.S. Senate seat.

Colom holds a razor-thin lead of about 2,000 ballots or 49.1% to 48.8% over Hyde-Smith with 96% of votes counted as of 12 p.m. ET on Nov. 6, according to the Associated Press.

The results of the tightly contested race will be key to determining how large a majority Democrats will have in the Senate after they gained control of Congress in the midterms.

The race between Hyde-Smith and Colom has also drawn widespread attention over a viral ad from the Democrat's campaign.

It shows a clip of Hyde-Smith from a television interview responding to concerns about rising beef prices by saying people "have so many proteins to choose from." Bewildered by the suggestion to "pick another protein," the ad features several people who say they'd "rather pick another senator instead."

We may not know the final results of the Mississippi U.S. Senate election for days or even weeks.

State officials can count mail-in ballots for an additional five days after the election if they were postmarked by Election Day.

County clerks also have 10 days to certify the election results, the Mississippi Secretary of State's office confirmed to the Clarion-Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network.

The candidate who falls behind could also go to court and ask for a recount, further slowing things down, David Becker, a former DOJ voting rights lawyer who runs the Center for Election Innovation & Research, told reporters Nov. 4, according to previous USA TODAY reporting.

Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. Keep up with her on Instagram @bymelinakhan and TikTok @melina.khan2.