A new Miss America has been crowned: Abbie Stockard, a 22-year-old Auburn University nursing student and cheerleader who was named Miss Alabama last June ahead of her senior year. Stockard triumphed over 51 other hopefuls — one from each US state, as well as Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico — at the annual pageant in Orlando, Florida on Sunday. Annette Addo-Yobo, the first foreign-born delegate to win Miss Texas, was named runner up, with representatives from Tennessee, Florida and Ohio completing the top five. The pageant began with contestants taking the stage in glittering gold mini dresses and black sashes before they were swiftly narrowed down to 11 finalists based on the results of preliminary events earlier in the week. Over the course of the evening, finalists vying for the crown (and a $50,000 prize) came together for choreographed dance performances and competed in several live segments judged by former Olympic athlete Carl Lewis and cheerleader Gabi Butler of Netflix's "Cheer," among others. The event included a fitness portion, which replaced swimwear in 2023, and saw contestants parade in red-and-gold athleisure two-pieces, as well as talent, eveningwear and interview rounds. Talent performances included slam poetry (Miss Texas), clogging (Miss Oklahoma) and a jazz dance routine to Lesley Gore's 1963 hit "You Don't Own Me" (Miss Wisconsin). Stockard performed a contemporary dance to a song by Christian musician Lauren Daigle, then took the stage in a backless, glittering silver and white gown for her eveningwear look. Elsewhere in the pageant, delegates answered questions on randomly assigned topics such as housing, censorship and the national debt. Stockard, when asked to comment on unemployment, spoke to the declining labor force participation rate among 25-to-54-year-olds following the Covid-19 pandemic (though the employment rate for that demographic 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 said. Addo-Yobo, meanwhile, was asked about the topic of immigration. She spoke to her personal experiences of becoming a US citizen two years prior, telling the judges that her parents arrived in the country with "two suitcases, a few hundred dollars and a little girl, which was me, in a fur coat." In a video broadcast during the pageant, Stockard said she had been inspired by her mother, who she said worked multiple jobs, and her best friend, who has cystic fibrosis and was in attendance Sunday night (Stockard's charity initiative for the pageant raised money for cystic fibrosis research). A video posted to Miss America's official Instagram account on Sunday evening showed Stockard reacting to her victory, saying: "This is insane. I don't know what I did to deserve this." Founded in 1921, Miss America began in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and enjoyed a decades-long heyday as a televised event on major networks NBC and ABC before its viewership declined. NBC's streaming service Peacock aired the competition in 2022, but since then it has only been available on pageant-specific streaming platforms. Last year's crown went to Madison Marsh, a 22-year-old second lieutenant in the US Air Force, who made history as the first active-duty military member to win the national title. Following her win, Marsh told CNN she felt like she "broke stereotypes in pageants and in the military for women all across the globe." She has served as an ambassador for the Miss America Organization for the past year, before passing on the torch. The pageant also features a teen competition, with Peyton Bolling of Arkansas crowned Miss America Teen on Saturday night. Contestants for Miss America Teen must be aged between 14 and 18 years old, while Miss America ranges from 18 to 28 years old. Miss America increased its maximum age from 25 to 28 in 2023, though other pageant organizations have more significantly loosened their eligibility criteria in recent years. The Miss Universe Organization, which runs Miss USA (a separate pageant from Miss America), eliminated its upper age limit altogether last year, leading to the likes of 80-year-old Choi Soon-hwa and 71-year-old Marissa Teijo competing in Miss Universe Korea and Miss Texas USA, respectively. In September, a New York mom filed a lawsuit against the Miss America Organization and Miss World Organization for their respective rules disqualifying mothers from their competitions. Miss America has also been at the center of an ongoing ownership dispute between estranged business partners Robin Fleming and Glenn Straub, according to Reuters. — CNN
