Meet the 26-year-old who was just crowned Miss USA in the Trump-owned pageant
Darren DeckerOlivia JordanMiss Oklahoma Olivia Jordan was crowned Miss USA 2015 in Baton Rouge, Lousiana on Sunday evening.
The Miss USA pageant is co-owned by Donald Trump. He missed the event because he was in Phoenix campaigning as a GOP presidential hopeful.
Jordan is a 5'11" 26-year-old model from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has appeared in Cosmo, Shape and Vogue Japan. She also appeared in the film, "Hot Tub Time Machine 2."
She graduated from Boston University with a degree in health science, according to her bio.
Jordan, who graced the stage in an electrifying pink Sherri Hill gown, beat 50 other beautiful women from across the country at the L'Auberge Baton Rouge Casino & Hotel.
The Miss USA competition lasts for two weeks. During that time the contestants participate in appearances, volunteer work and preliminary completions, which includes a panel interview, evening gown, and swimsuit. On Sunday, the women were narrowed down to 15 finalists, then 11, and ultimately five.
The five finalists have to answer an onstage question.
Former Miss USA/Miss Universe 1997 Brook Lee asked Jordan what she thought the next hot-button issue was in the US that we need to tackle on a national level?
"I think we still need to talk about race relations in this country," Jordan said. "We have not solved this issue. We are still having problems. We keep hearing about new issues coming up. We really need to work on being an accepting society and being a society where every single person, no matter your race, no matter your gender, is given the same rights and privileges and opportunities."
This year's Miss USA pageant had a shadow cast over it following comments made by Trump about Mexican immigrants during his campaign launch as a GOP presidential hopeful last month. He called people coming into the US from the Mexico border rapists and said they're bringing drugs and crime.
Both NBC and Univision dropped the pageant after Trump's statements. A bunch of the celebrity hosts/judges/performers also dropped out. (This year's judging panel consisted of former titleholders.)
Miss USA is widely considered the "Super Bowl of pageants." Last year, more than 5.5 million people watched the competition on NBC.
After NBC ended its business relationship with Trump, little-known cable network ReelzChannel picked up the broadcasting rights. The pageant was also live-streamed on YouTube. The livestream showed just over 30,000 viewers streaming the show.
Following Trump's statements, Miss Universe Organization has pointed out that it's an independently-run company. Trump isn't the one running the show. He doesn't spend a lot of time with the titleholders either.
On Saturday evening, Trump Tweeted that he was campaigning in Phoenix and wishing all of the contestants well.
Here's a shot of Jordan's crowning moment:
