VOTE: Do you want to see Miss America return to Atlantic City?
TRENTON — New Jersey lawmakers are getting closer to asking the Miss America pageant to return to Atlantic City for a third stint where it all started over 100 years ago.
A state Assembly committee on Thursday advanced a bill that would urge the Miss America Organization to return to Atlantic City “in 2025 and every year thereafter.”
The bill will go before the full Assembly for a vote. It must also go before the full Senate and be approved by both houses before going to the governor’s desk for his signature.
The Miss America Organization did not respond to a message seeking comment.
The pageant began in Atlantic City in 1921 as a way to extend the summer tourism season that ended up creating an iconic American experience.
But lately, that experience has been taking place hundreds of miles away from Atlantic City. It most recently was held in Orlando, Florida, after a few years in Connecticut, after New Jersey ended subsidies aimed at helping the group finance its operations here.
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“It’s something Atlantic City has always been proud of,” said Assemblyman Don Guardian, a Republican former mayor of Atlantic City. “It would be nice to have her back in town again.”
“We tried; the state put quite a bit of funding in to promote it, but they couldn’t continue that level of spending,” Guardian said.
State lawmakers on Thursday will consider a bill urging the Miss America Organization to return to the seaside city where it all began in 1921 as a way to extend the summer tourism season that ended up creating an iconic American experience.
He said a study would have to be done on the pageant’s economic impact on Atlantic City and the state.
“We’d love to have her back; we just need to see if it’s feasible,” Guardian said.
Assemblywoman Andrea Katz, a Democrat from Mount Holly, said she was inspired by working with Miss New Jersey 2024 Elizabeth Mendel. The Cape May Court House woman worked with the assemblywoman on several legislative measures involving treating and preventing eating disorders.
“I really wanted to go see her compete in Miss America, but it was in Orlando, not Atlantic City,” Katz said. “I was thinking, ‘We need to bring this back to New Jersey; this is the kind of energy we need.’ These women are working on such incredible platforms. We need this back here.”
For generations, Miss America was held in Atlantic City, with the surf, salt water taffy and Boardwalk parades to show off creative footwear featuring prominently in the experience.
It was a part of Americana, and longtime master of ceremonies Bert Parks crooning, “There she is ... Miss America,” became synonymous with the pageant.
The Miss America competition left Atlantic City in 2005 after deciding it was too expensive to stage its production here. It went to Las Vegas, where it was held at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.
New Jersey officials coaxed the pageant back to Atlantic City in 2013, with subsidies aimed at helping the event succeed.
Miss New Jersey Elizabeth Mendel, 23, of Cape May Court House, participated in the Miss America 2025 competition earlier this month in Orlando, Florida, even though when first approached to involve herself in pageants as a teenager, she declined initially.
But the state declined to renew subsidies following the 2018 competition, and in 2019, the pageant moved to Connecticut.
The bill makes no mention of subsidies or any incentives that might be offered.
Katz said she hopes the competition’s finances could succeed if it returned to Atlantic City.
“Let’s all be optimistic,” she said.
Ownership of the Miss America Organization has been the subject of recent litigation in Florida. Former Atlantic City casino owner Glenn Straub sued Miss America’s CEO last year for $20 million. Straub, who owns companies that acquired the Miss America Organization in 2022, claims in the lawsuit that he terminated Robin Fleming from her position as the pageant’s CEO in April 2024 but that she claims to still be in charge.
Earlier this month, 22-year-old nursing student Abbie Stockard of Alabama was crowned Miss America 2025 in Orlando.
The organization says its mission is “empowering women to lead” in every area of life from philanthropy to business to arts, politics, education and more.
In 1945, it started awarding scholarships to the winner instead of prize money, making Miss America one of the first organizations in the United States to offer college scholarships to women.
