BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – New Miss USA Olivia Jordan spoke of the need to discuss race relations en route to her pageant victory and hailed the diversity of women taking part in the contest during a post-pageant question about Donald Trump’s comments on Mexican immigrants.
Jordan of Oklahoma was crowned Miss USA on Sunday, wearing a hot pink strapless dress with a full, flowing skirt as she smoothly navigated the interview portion of the competition to beat out 50 other contestants.
After weeks of controversy generated by Trump’s comments bashing Mexican immigrants, the pageant passed with no mention of the real estate mogul who was not in attendance.
Instead, the focus was on women like Jordan and others who’d worked hard to get to the stage. There was also a special video segment highlighting the immigrant roots of some of the contestants.
The 26-year-old winner was followed by first runner-up Ylianna Guerra, 22, of Texas, and second runner-up Anea Garcia, 20, of Rhode Island. They were followed by 25-year-old Miss Nevada Brittany McGown as third runner-up and then Miss Maryland Mame Adjei, 23, rounding out the top five.