Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith suggested that supporters of her Democratic challenger in the upcoming U.S. Senate race may have been involved in a 2023 shooting targeting her.
Hyde-Smith spoke with two attendees at an Aug. 31 campaign event in Brookhaven, according to audio acquired by American Bridge 21st Century and shared with the Clarion Ledger. American Bridge 21st Century is a progressive super PAC that dispatches dozens of trackers to capture video and audio of politicians on the campaign trail.
The senator attended an event that morning with the Southwest Mississippi National Guard Retiree Group, according to a post on Facebook. American Bridge 21st Century confirmed the audio came from that event at a Cracker Barrel and occurred in a side conversation.
In the recording, Hyde-Smith can be heard discussing a "guy who shot at us" with another person. A spokesperson for her campaign confirmed that she was referencing an October 2023 shooting near her home in Brookhaven. The U.S. Capitol Police, which investigated that shooting, did not return calls or an email to comment on the status of that investigation.
Nobody was harmed in that shooting, and it was unclear at the time whether it was intentional and if she was targeted.
The transcript of the audio is as follows:
Hyde-Smith: That's right, you said I need a bodyguard?
Guest 1: You said they got that guy came by.
Hyde-Smith: Oh yeah, the guy who shot at us.
Guest 2: Somebody shot at you? Oh my god.
Hyde-Smith: But he's in prison where he belongs. Yeah. It's just, a lot comes with this job people don't know about.
Guest 2: Yeah, I bet. I bet. Oh my god.
Hyde-Smith: And with this campaign going on, my opponent, he has got his hands in so many different places. We have to be very careful.
Guest 2: You mean, do you think he's, like, hiring people to-?
Hyde-Smith: People are just crazy out there. Maybe not him doing it, they're just supporting him and they get caught up in it.
Guest 2: Right. Well, I'm glad you're OK.
Hyde-Smith campaign officials voiced concern with American Bridge 21st Century.
"American Bridge recently featured in their television ads a Colom supporter who made violent threats against President Trump online. Given the seriousness of previous threats and incidents, the campaign takes security very seriously," Jake Monssen, Hyde-Smith's campaign manager, wrote in a Sept. 11 statement to the Clarion Ledger. "After featuring a woman in ads who made threats online, here we have American Bridge now surreptitiously recording private conversations. Clearly they will stop at nothing."
The statement included a link to an article written by far-right activist Laura Loomer alleging that a Hernando resident featured in one of American Bridge's recent ads posted "8647" on Facebook. The term "86," originating from restaurant slang, means to get rid of something, and Trump is the 47th president.
The campaign was asked by the Clarion Ledger what the senator meant by what she said in the recording and whether she believed her opponent's supporters were involved in the 2023 shooting. Campaign officials did not respond to either of those questions.
The Clarion Ledger provided Colom with the transcript of the conversation. Colom, a longtime lawyer who serves as the district attorney for Mississippi's 16th judicial district, said Hyde-Smith's comments were offensive to him and the "hardworking Mississippians from all walks of life" who have supported his campaign over the last year.
"I'm a district attorney," he said. "I don't condone violence; I prosecute violence. The only thing I 'got my hands in' is campaigning all across Mississippi."
Colom was not a candidate for U.S. Senate in October 2023 when the shooting outside of Hyde-Smith's house occurred and did not enter the race until September 2025, almost two years later. Hyde-Smith's remarks about the shooting, Colom said, were a deflection from what he described as the most important element of the race: showing up.
"I think she's trying to make excuses for the fact that she refuses to campaign," Colom said. "She hasn't done a town hall in six years. She's deflecting from her record of cutting health care for Mississippians."
Charles Taylor, the executive director of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP, told the Clarion Ledger in a Sept. 4 interview that the comments seemed to carry an undertone of racial discrimination, especially considering previous remarks of hers. He referenced a 2018 campaign event where Hyde-Smith said she would "be on the front row" of a public hanging if one of the attendees invited her.
Taylor echoed Colom's assessment of her remarks as "offensive." The Clarion Ledger provided Taylor with a transcript of the recording on Sept. 4.
"A U.S. Senator who wants to go to a public hanging potentially suggesting she's afraid of Black Mississippians by saying a lot of Scott Colom's supporters are targeting her is just appalling," Taylor said. "If anything, people should be afraid of her."
Hyde-Smith apologized for her comments about the public hanging a few weeks after making them, saying in a debate that she had "no ill will" in the statement.
Hyde-Smith's comments in 2026 and in 2018 alike indicate that the senator is "not the kind of person we want to represent us," Taylor said. "For her to be someone so cavalier in her commentary shows me she only cares about a segment of Mississippi."
The 2026 general election will be the first electoral confrontation between Colom and Hyde-Smith, but the pair have been at odds before. Then-President Joe Biden nominated Colom in November 2022 to serve as a U.S. District Court judge, but the process stalled after Hyde-Smith withheld her support. The nomination eventually failed.
The race between Hyde-Smith and Colom has become increasingly tense as it has inched closer to Election Day. Colom has taken shots at what he describes as his opponent's lack of presence in the state, dubbing her "Cindy High-Prices," while Hyde-Smith labeled him the "transgender defender" in a website made to seem affiliated with his campaign.
Bea Anhuci is the state government reporter for the Clarion Ledger. She has covered Mississippi politics since the start of 2026. Email her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Hyde-Smith suggests Colom supporters may have had role in MS shooting | Exclusive