Russ Hudson was not supposed to be in Scott Colom’s protein ad.
Mr. Hudson, 35, had known the district attorney for about a decade before Mr. Colom became the Democratic candidate for Senate in Mississippi. But it was Mr. Hudson’s father who was initially cast in the campaign ad mocking a suggestion from Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republican incumbent, that Mississippi residents pick another type of protein to avoid rising beef prices.
When the elder Mr. Hudson balked at a script that would require him to utter profanity on camera, his son volunteered. In a short-sleeved button down shirt, he stood at a grill in the backyard of Mr. Colom’s parent’s house and tossed his head back to deliver a drawling, deadpan rebuke of Ms. Hyde-Smith.
“Shee-it,” Mr. Hudson says in the spot, rendering the off-color word with a distinct southern twang. “I’d rather pick another senator, instead.”
The lines, he said, felt natural. He left thinking maybe a couple thousand people would see it.
“I just did it like a Mississippian would,” Mr. Hudson said in an interview.
Now, Mr. Hudson, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, has found himself as the unlikely face of one of the most potent campaign advertisements of the 2026 midterm cycle. The ad, released in the final weeks of the election season, became a defining feature of Mr. Colom’s campaign and his surge to a stunning upset.
“I never expected it to do what it did,” Mr. Hudson said.
He even downloaded TikTok to keep up with all the commentary his friends were sending him about the ad. Someone made him a “pick another protein” shirt with his face on it, along with the other two women in the ad.
And he keeps fielding requests to, well, say it again.
“They make me throw my head back with it, too,” he said.
Mr. Hudson, who said he has been mocked for his Southern twang outside of the state, had not been heavily involved in politics. As a disabled veteran on a fixed income and father to an infant, he was drawn to Mr. Colom’s pledges to focus on high costs and protecting benefits for veterans, as well as the personal connection. The ad, he figured, was his contribution to the campaign.
“A lot of people don’t know much about Mississippi,” he said. “And look at us now. We’re worldwide.”
