Mississippi’s junior U.S. senator, Cindy Hyde-Smith, has spent months attacking Democratic challenger Scott Colom over transgender issues.

The attacks portray Colom as recklessly supporting men competing in women’s sports and gender-transition surgeries for children.

But looking at the facts paints a very different picture.

In 2021, Colom joined more than 70 prosecutors and law-enforcement leaders in signing a statement opposing efforts to criminalize transgender people, their families, and healthcare providers.

Colom signed the statement in his capacity as district attorney for Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District.

But the statement was actually not about many of the mainstream transgender issues.

It was primarily about criminal prosecution and the proper use of law-enforcement resources.

The document argued that police and prosecutors have limited resources and should be focused on public safety.

It also raised concerns about government intrusion into deeply personal healthcare decisions.

In other words, the statement was about legal nuance, not culture war.

And the statement did not endorse transgender athletes in women’s sports.

In fact, it didn’t discuss sports at all.

Colom, a father of two young daughters, has since answered the question himself.

“I’m not for biological boys playing girls sports. I’m not for gender-affirming surgeries for children. I’ve never been for those things,” Colom told Magnolia Tribune this summer.

That’s an important distinction largely missing from the attacks against him.

Someone can maintain a personal position on a controversial issue while also believing that doctors and patients shouldn’t automatically face criminal prosecution.

But the attacks on Colom don’t stop there.

Hyde-Smith’s campaign also operates an entire opposition website at ColomForSenate.com, a domain that sounds like it could belong to Colom’s own campaign.

Once visited, however, there is no hiding its purpose.

The landing page labels Colom “Biden’s Pick,” “Liberal” and “Soros Funded.”

Its first featured attack video is titled “Transgender Defender,” and the website contains sections attacking Colom over crime, George Soros and national Democrats.

Of course, political attacks are nothing new.

And, to be fair, Colom spends plenty of time attacking Hyde-Smith’s record too.

He has tied Hyde-Smith to rising consumer costs and he has also challenged her to host more public town halls.

But this particular transgender attack is worth examining because the underlying document tells voters considerably more about Colom than any slogan does.

In his role as a prosecutor, Colom determined that people facing difficult and deeply personal situations should not automatically be treated as criminals.

He has since directly answered questions about where he stands on sports and surgeries for children.

Voters can agree with those answers or disagree with them.

But there is something valuable in knowing what the answers actually are.

So perhaps the transgender controversy does tell Mississippians something important about Democrat Scott Colom after all.

It shows how he approached a difficult question with care and empathy when he actually held the power to prosecute.

The record shows that Colom looked at the consequences of prosecution and asked whether bringing the force of government down was actually justified.

Mississippi voters will make their choice on November 3.

They deserve to make it based on who the candidates actually are, what they actually believe, and what they actually did.