Three contestants will represent states other than their own

JOHN DeROSIER Staff Writer 1 hr ago 

Miss Delaware
Miss Delaware Chelsea Bruce is from Manasquan, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Miss Delaware 2016 Amanda DeBus, right, poses with Miss Delaware 2017 Chelsea Bruce, left, after the Miss Delaware competition this year.

Chelsea Bruce, who grew up in Manasquan, Monmouth County, will represent Delaware in this year’s competition. Bruce, 22, is a senior at the University of Delaware majoring in political science and economics.

She was allowed to compete in the Miss Delaware competition because she goes to school there and is looking to become the first Miss Delaware to win the crown in the state’s history, despite coming from the Garden State.

But Bruce isn’t the only contestant representing a state that is different from her home. Bruce will be joined by Miss District of Columbia Briana Kinsey, who is from Birmingham, Alabama, and Miss Iowa Chelsea Dubczak, from Holmen, Wisconsin, in that category.

Sally Johnston, the director of the Miss New Jersey Organization, said a contestant coming from a state other than her own is nothing new and actually very common within the Miss America Organization.

“That’s happened for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been here for a long time,” she joked.

New Jersey has also seen the state crown go to contestants from around the country.

The most recent was Cara McCollum, who was from Forrest City, Arkansas, attended Princeton University and won the Miss New Jersey title in 2013.

Allowing nonresident participants has been embraced as a way to let more young women participate.

But it’s also had a few consequences.

In New Jersey, many local pageants in the northern part of the state began to fall off when the Miss America Organization opened up the rules on who could compete in a particular competition.

A contestant used to have to live, work or go to school in a particular county to compete in the local pageants. Now, the pageants are more wide open. Because most directors of local pageants live in South Jersey, the pageants in North Jersey started to disappear.

But Johnston said the Miss New Jersey Organization is actively working to bring pageants back to the central and northern counties.

“My goal is to make this a state pageant,” she said. “We’re really working hard to bring the northern part of the state back.”

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/missamerica/three-contestants-will-represent-states-other-than-their-own/article_be4eafd1-fc2f-56bb-ad8b-132f55d75f1b.html