Which State Has the Most Miss USA Winners?

It’s that time of year again when the annual Miss USA pageant takes place. Each year 51 women from every state and the District of Columbia compete for the crown and a chance to go on to become Miss Universe. And just about every time the pageant airs on TV plenty of viewers have the same question: Which state has the most Miss USA winners?

Here’s the answer to that plus which states have not had any winners.

The state that has the most Miss USA winners

Before we give the answer about which state the most Miss USAs hail from, we’ll mention how many titleholders Washington D.C. has since it isn’t a state. The nation’s capital has produced a total of four winners.

The beauty pageant has been around for 70 years and in that time the state with the most winners is Texas with 10. In 2022, Miss Texas R’Bonney Gabriel took home the crown. Prior to her win, the last time a woman from the Lone Star state was crowned was in 2008.

Coming in behind Texas in second place with the most winners is California with six. The last time a woman from the Golden State was crowned was in 2011.

States that have at least 2 Miss USA winners

A handful of other states have had three and four winners while several have two.

Maryland is one of those states to claim two titles. According to Insider, the state’s first winner Mary Leona Gage, who won in 1957, was disqualified after it was revealed that she lied about her age and had a husband and children. Contestants must be between the ages of 18 and 28 to be eligible to compete in the pageant and cannot be married or have kids. There are other pageants such as Ms. America that cater to women who are divorced, married, or widowed, and with or without children. 

Maryland’s second winner, Nana Meriwether, was never actually crowned on stage during the ceremony because she took over when the 2012 Miss USA winner Olivia Culpo became Miss Universe. 

Following her reign Culpo, who is from Rhode Island, became a fashion model and actor with credits in I Feel Pretty, Reprisal, The Other Woman, and The Swing of Things. Ali Landry of Louisiana, who won in 1996, also pursued an acting and modeling career, as well as the 1993 winner from Michigan Kenya Moore, who was a main cast member on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

The states that do not have any Miss USA winners

As for the states that have not yet had a Miss USA victory, they are: Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.