Miss Michigan Wins Miss USA—A Job Last Year’s Winner Didn’t Even Want TIARA TIME

Miss Michigan, Alma Cooper, was crowned Miss USA 2024 on Sunday night in Los Angeles, besting 50 of her fellow contestants. Miss Kentucky, Connor Perry, placed just behind her as first runner-up.

And despite two state titleholders’ tumbles during the pageant’s preliminary rounds, no-one fell off—or into—the stage.

The main event saw contestants progress through swimwear, evening gown and Q&A rounds, winnowing down in numbers each time at the judges’ seemingly arbitrary whims.

Cooper, 22, wore a patriotic, stars and stripes-emblazoned bikini and then an asymmetrical, sparkling silver evening gown. Addressing a question about “bridging gaps between cultures,” she highlighted her Afro-Latina heritage, her service in the US Army, and her studies as she works towards a master’s degree in statistics and data science at Stanford University.

This year’s pageant marked the first in which no age limit was in place; would-be contestants in previous years aged out of the Miss USA system after turning 28. Six of the 51 women in competition would have been ineligible under this rule, among them 41-year-old Miss Arizona, Kristina “K” Johnson and 31-year-old Miss Maryland, Bailey Anne Kennedy, who is also the first transgender woman to represent her state.