Miss America 2017, Miss North Dakota Cara Mund reacts. Cara Mund of North Dakota was crowned Miss America. Miss North Dakota Cara Mund reacts after being announced as the winner of the 97th Miss America Competition in Atlantic City, New Jersey U.S. September 10, 2017. An Ivy League graduate and national dance champion from North Dakota was crowned Miss America on Sunday, becoming the first contestant from the state to win the nearly 100-year-old contest.
Cara Mund, from Bismarck, N.D., a graduate of Brown University in Rhode Island, who has been accepted to Notre Dame’s law school, trained for several summers with the world-famous Rockettes.
Mund, 23, was one of 51 contestants in the pageant, representing the 50 United States and the District of Columbia.
Mund, who adopted the Make-a-Wish foundation which benefits children with life-threatening conditions as her platform for the competition, performed a jazz dance to “The Way You Make Me Feel” for the contest’s talent portion, wearing a double-breasted black mini-dress with a matching fedora-type hat.
In a question-and-answer session, Mund weighed in on the United States’ recent withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, saying she thought it was a “bad decision.”
“Whether you believe it (climate change) or not, we need to be at that table,” she added.
The first runner-up was Miss Missouri, Jennifer Davis, who competed on a platform of diversity.
Cara Mund is not worried that she may begin her year-long reign as Miss America by starting a Twitter war with the nation’s Tweeter-In-Chief.
The 23-year-old Miss North Dakota won the crown tonight in Atlantic City after saying in an onstage interview that President Donald Trump was wrong to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord.
Mund topped a field of 51 contestants to win in the New Jersey seaside resort, where most of the 97 Miss Americas have been selected. Miss Hawaii Kathryn Teruya was not among the top 15 finalists.
She will take the traditional winner’s morning-after dip in the Atlantic City ocean Monday morning outside Boardwalk Hall, where she was crowned.
In one of her onstage interviews, Mund said Trump, a Republican, was wrong to withdraw the U.S. from the climate accord aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
“It’s a bad decision,” she said. “There is evidence that climate change is existing and we need to be at that table.”
Meeting with reporters after winning the crown, Mund stood her ground, saying she wanted first and foremost to give a real answer to the question.
“I wasn’t really afraid if my opinion wasn’t the opinion of my judges,” she said. “Miss America needs to have an opinion and she needs to know what’s happening in the current climate.”
She’s not concerned about any pushback from Trump, who said the Paris accord was a bad deal economically for the United States and who also called global warming a hoax.
Trump had not mentioned Mund or her comment on the Paris accord on Twitter as of early Monday morning.
“He is our president and we need to support him,” Mund said. “I may not agree with all of his opinions, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to support the president.”
In an interview with the Associated Press before preliminary competition began, Mund, who lives in Bismarck, N.D., said her goal is to be the first woman elected governor of her state.
She said she wants to see more women elected to all levels of government.
“It’s important to have a woman’s perspective,” Mund, who had an internship in the U.S. Senate, told the AP. “In health care and on reproductive rights, it’s predominantly men making those decisions.”
An Ivy League graduate from Brown University who is headed to law school, Mund went to high school with Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz.
“I said, ‘If Carson Wentz can do it, Miss North Dakota Cara Mund can become Miss America,’” she said after winning the title.
She is the first contestant from her state to win the Miss America crown.
'Miss America' gets political: Contestants asked about Trump-Russia collusion, Confederate statues
Miss North Dakota, Cara Mund, was named Miss America 2017 Sunday night in Atlantic City following a night of political questions ranging from the Trump administration's alleged collusion with Russia to Confederate monuments.
The event got political after the Miss America candidates were asked multiple questions about the current political climate and President Trump during the question-and-answer session.
During one of the onstage interviews, Mund said Trump was wrong to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord aimed at combating climate change.
“I do believe it's a bad decision,' she said. “Once we reject that, we take ourselves out of the negotiation table and that's something that we really need to keep in mind.”
“There is evidence that climate change is existing. So whether you believe it or not, we need to be at that table, and I think it's just a bad decision on behalf of the United States,” she added.
In an interview before the preliminary event, Mund said she hopes to become the first elected woman governor of her state.
“It's important to have a woman's perspective,” she said, stressing the importance of women in important government jobs. “In health care and on reproductive rights, it's predominantly men making those decisions.”
Mund, however, was not the only candidate to receive political questions.
Miss Missouri Jennifer Davis was asked to be “the jury” on whether Trump colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton and give “innocent or guilty” verdict.
“Right now I'd have to say innocent because not enough information has been revealed,” Davis said, adding however that “we should investigate it to its fullest extent.”
Miss New Jersey Kaitlyn Schoeffel, meanwhile, was asked to give her opinion on Confederate statues and whether they should be removed from public display – to which the contestant suggested to move the statues to museums.
The contest’s hosts also asked Miss Texas Morgana Wood what she thought about Trump’s comments after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville where he blamed the violence on “both sides”.
Wood branded the death of counter protester Heather Heyer as a “terrorist attack” and said the President “should have made a statement earlier addressing the fact and making sure all Americans feel safe in this country.”
The first runner up of the competition was Miss Missouri, while Miss New Jersey was the second runner up.
She was followed by contestants from New Jersey, Kaitlyn Schoeffel, District of Columbia, Briana Kinsey and Texas, Margana Wood.
The pageant was broadcast live on ABC from Atlantic City, New Jersey. The contest returned to the seaside gambling resort a few years ago after nearly a decade in Las Vegas. It was dropped by ABC in 2004 following a steep ratings decline, but returned after years on cable.
Judges scored contestants, who ranged from teen-agers to the cut-off age of 24, based on talent, the live question segment, a personal interview and appearances in gowns and swimsuits.
Many of the entrants drew on music or dance for the talent portion.
Miss America crowned in Atlantic City. Ivy League graduate and dance champion crowned Miss America The winner receives a six-figure salary, expenses for the year and a $50,000 scholarship. Miss America 2017, Miss North Dakota, Amerika Serikat.
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