Miss USA 2017 Winner: Meet District of Columbia’s Kara McCullough

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A 25-year-old chemist working for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is Miss USA 2017. Kara McCullough was crowned Sunday during the pageant on the Las Vegas Strip. She will go on to compete on the Miss Universe contest.

McCullough’s win marks the second year in a row that a contestant from the District was crowned by event judges at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Last year, Washington, D.C. resident Deshauna Barber became the first-ever military member to win Miss USA honors.

The contest’s runner-up was Miss New Jersey Chhavi Verg, a student at Rutgers University studying marketing and Spanish. She was one of five contestants — along with women representing Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii and North Dakota — who immigrated to the U.S. as children.

The second runner-up was Miss Minnesota Meridith Gould, who is studying apparel retail merchandising at the University of Minnesota. All three finalists were asked to explain how they define feminism and if they consider themselves feminists.

The Miss USA pageant was formerly part-owned by President Donald J. Trump, who in 2015 sparked a controversy  when he made anti-immigrant remarks in announcing his bid for the White House. The billionaire co-owned The Miss Universe Organization with NBCUniversal, but the network and Spanish-language broadcaster Univision severed ties with Trump following his remarks and refused to air the show. Trump sued both networks, eventually settling and selling the pageant to talent management company WME/IMG.

Miss USA was founded in 1952 by Catalina Swimsuits, formerly a sponsor of Miss America, in Long Beach, California. Although some women compete in both Miss USA and Miss America, the two systems are completely separate, according to the Miss Universe Organization

 

 


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/05/miss-usa-2017-winner-meet-district-of-columbias-kara-mccullough/.

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