wanderlustwoman wrote:Miss USA 2020 should be held in California! If almost a quarter of the class already lives there, they won't have to spent a fortune on travel. So which city are we thinking? LA is the obvious choice, but it would be neat to see it held in San Diego or back where it all began in Long Beach.
I say Los Angeles as I think most of the state hoppers are from Los Angeles and the surrounding areas.
Queen of the Clouds wrote:When I make reference to how dominant girls associated with California this year are, it's much less of a state hopper critique and more just a general observation. Not every CA girl is a state hopper (Samantha is from Hawaii but moved to CA), and not every CA girl is abusing the system because they can't win Miss CA USA (Katie is from CA, but she has never competed there and only competed in Wyoming).
Actually, Katie Bozner made two attempts at California USA: Top 20 in 2014 and Non-Finalist in 2018. She won Wyoming USA on her second attempt after finishing as 1st RU at Wyoming USA 2019.
Queen of the Clouds wrote:I'm not upset about the girls from California who have a legitimate connection to the states they're representing. Samantha technically state hopped to California since she grew up in Hawaii, and I don't have a problem with Emily because she does go to school in Colorado or Justice since her family legitimately moved to Tennessee. It's the girls like Victoria, Taelyr, Katerina, Merissa, etc., all of whom did not grow up in the states they're representing nor do they have any interest in permanently residing there, and they will all move back to their home states after relinquishing their titles. The states they're representing are no more than just a vessel to get to Miss USA, and they don't care at all about actually representing it or its people, which is why the 51 representatives system exists. I don't care that Victoria didn't grow up in California, she had a permanent residence in CA and actually lived there full-time, not just because she wanted to be Miss California USA.
A lot of these state hoppers are probably going back to California once Miss USA is over, that's when they don't have to pretend to live in and care about their new state anymore.
Queen of the Clouds wrote:Moving across state lines is not uncommon, the problem is when girls are cheating to go somewhere. Some state hoppers like Gabriella do seem to actually live and work in the state they state hopped too, which makes me feel more okay with it; it's just when they so obviously are cheating their way through the system when I have a problem. This girl Cecilia Rodriguez competed in Arizona just a few weeks ago, but now suddenly has three months of residency in New Mexico? Not to mention she competed in California year after year before suddenly "moving" to Arizona this year. That clearly should be unacceptable.
I get that numbers are down at USA state pageants, which is why IMG changed some of the rules, ie. raised the age limit to 28, reducing the residency from 6 months to three months, allowing two attempts in one year. My feeling is the intention behind the shorter residency and two states in one year was for the contestants who live in one state and work/attend school in another state. I don't think IMG intended for their rule changes to be abused by California state hoppers.