Our country was founded on compromise.
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Skidmore competed as Miss University of Arkansas at the Miss Arkansas 2016 Pageant where she was first runner up to Miss Arkansas and won a Preliminary Award for Lifestyle and Fitness in Swimsuit.
Shields impressed the pageant judges with her jazz dance routine and was asked an onstage question about Hillary Clinton (“Hillary Clinton – what do you think?”) shortly before she won the title.
“What I want both candidates to focus on is compromise”, she said. Then, as Shields started to say Clinton and Trump “need to watch what they’re doing”, she was cut off because of a 20-second limit on responses. Cantrell placed the crowned to the newest Miss America during the coronation.
Shields is a senior at the University of Arkansas where she studies art in the Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences, and she hopes to work at a museum or teach at a university when she finishes college.
Savvy Shields, 21, wore an elegant strapless black evening gown as she accepted the crown from the 2016 victor, Betty Cantrell of Georgia. She said she still has the soundtrack from the canceled TV show in her vehicle, where she plays it often. She also dreams of a day when she’ll be able to take the stage with Beyoncé as a backup dancer, The Associated Press noted.
The rest of the finalists were Miss Kentucky, Miss Massachusetts, Miss Idaho, Miss Iowa, Miss Texas, Miss California, Miss Oklahoma, Miss Maryland, Miss Tennessee, and Miss Louisiana.
This year’s competition includes the first openly gay contestant, Miss Missouri Erin O’Flaherty. O’Flaherty, 23, came out as a lesbian during her teenage years to a very supportive family.
Sunday’s finale was held on the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
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Sunday’s pageant had included contestants from all 50 states of the United States of America, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
