WPBN: Abbie Stockard, a 22-year-old cheerleader and nursing student at Auburn University, was elected Miss Alabama last June before her final year, making her the new Miss America.
At Sunday’s annual pageant in Orlando, Florida, Stockard defeated 51 other contestants, one from each US state, as well as from Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
Representatives from Tennessee, Florida, and Ohio completed the top five, with Annette Addo-Yobo, the first delegate from outside Texas to win Miss Texas, coming in second.
Before being quickly reduced to 11 finalists depending on the outcomes of preliminary events earlier in the week, the pageant started with candidates on the stage in shimmering gold minidresses and black sashes.
Throughout the evening, contestants competing for the title (and a $50,000 reward) gathered for choreographed dance routines and participated in multiple live parts evaluated by Netflix’s “Cheer” cheerleader Gabi Butler and former Olympic athlete Carl Lewis, among others.
In addition to talent, evening wear, and interview rounds, the competition featured a fitness component that took the place of swimwear in 2023. Contestants paraded in red-and-gold athleisure two-pieces.
Miss Texas’s slam poetry, Miss Oklahoma’s clogging, and Miss Wisconsin’s jazz dance performance to Lesley Gore’s 1963 hit song “You Don’t Own Me” were among the talent showcases. Stockard walked the stage in a backless, sparkling silver and white gown for her eveningwear ensemble after doing a modern dance to a song by Christian musician Lauren Daigle.
In other parts of the pageant, representatives responded to questions about censorship, housing, and the national debt, among other randomly chosen subjects. When asked about unemployment, Stockard mentioned the drop in the labor force participation rate among individuals aged 25 to 54 during the Covid-19 outbreak, even though the employment rate for this group has since increased.
“I believe we need to encourage those (people) to join the workforce, adapt to new skills and learn to grow in our current workforce and industries we have today,” she stated.
Meanwhile, Addo-Yobo was questioned about immigration. Speaking to the judges about her own experiences obtaining US citizenship two years earlier, she explained that her parents had brought “two suitcases, a few hundred dollars, and a little girl, which was me, in a fur coat” to the nation.
Stockard’s charity initiative for the pageant raised money for cystic fibrosis research, and she said she was motivated by her mother, who worked numerous jobs, and her closest friend, who has cystic fibrosis and was present on Sunday night, in a video broadcast throughout the pageant.
Stockard responded to her win by stating, “This is insane,” in a video that was uploaded to Miss America’s official Instagram account on Sunday night. I have no idea what I done to merit this.
Significant changes
Miss America was founded in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1921, and before its popularity dwindled, it had a decades-long heyday as a televised event on major networks NBC and ABC. The competition was first broadcast on NBC’s streaming service Peacock in 2022, but it has since only been accessible on pageant-specific streaming services.
Peyton Bolling of Arkansas was crowned Miss America adolescent on Saturday night, part of the pageant’s adolescent competition. Miss America Teen contestants must be between the ages of 14 and 18, whereas Miss America contestants can be between the ages of 18 and 28.
Although other pageant organizations have more drastically relaxed their eligibility requirements in recent years, Miss America raised its maximum age from 25 to 28 in 2023.
Last year, the Miss Universe Organization, which organizes Miss USA (a different pageant from Miss America), completely removed the maximum age limit. As a result, contestants like as Choi Soon-hwa, 80, and Marissa Teijo, 71, competed in Miss Universe Korea and Miss Texas USA, respectively.
The Miss America Organization and Miss World Organization were sued in September by a mother from New York for their separate policies that excluded moms from their contests.
