Your Miss USA is a Louisville journalist.
WHAS reporter Elle Smith, who covers Southern Indiana, was crowned on Monday evening during the finale of the national pageant.
She is the second woman from Kentucky to claim the title of Miss USA. Tara Connor won in 2006.
Smith, who is also a 2020 UK graduate, is new to the pageant scene. She won the title of Miss Kentucky at her first pageant. Now, she’ll be competing on a global level. The winner of Miss USA heads to the Miss Universe pageant, which is taking place this year in Eilat, Israel on Dec. 12.
To win, Smith participated in Miss USA’s evening gown and swimsuit categories. She also answered questions about her most important core value (honesty), and how the public can encourage businesses to be more environmentally conscious.
"I think we've got to look at it from a macro level and also a micro level,” she said. “So at a macro level countries need to switch to green energy. I think that's something we can all agree on. But then at the micro-level, we all know how to reduce, reuse, recycle. Those are things we can implement in our daily lives.”
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