The 2018 Miss Hawaii USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Hawaii in the Miss USA pageant.
Hawaiʻi is the most recent state to start competing at Miss USA, as it first competed in 1962. Prior to this, delegates were sent to Miss Universe. Despite the late start, it has been one of the most successful: Hawaiʻi's first Miss USA, Macel Wilson, came the first year the state competed. There have been four Miss USA winners from Hawaiʻi, one of three states with four titles (only second to Texas and California). Although there have been many Miss USA winners and semifinalists, relatively few women from Hawaiʻi have placed as runners-up. Two of them previously competed at Miss Teen USA. Kelly Hu, Miss Teen USA 1985,[1] became the first Miss Teen USA winner to win a Miss title, in 1993.
Many Miss Hawaii USA titleholders competed at a number of international pageants. Similar to Miss South Carolina USA, there was one Miss Hawaii USA that competed at Miss World. Another one competed at Miss International. Four of the winners competed at Miss Universe, after winning Miss USA. Out of six titleholders who represented the United States or Hawaii at major international pageants, only one won an international crown: Miss Hawaii USA 1997, Brook Lee who won the title of Miss USA 1997 and also captured the crown of Miss Universe 1997,[2] one of only seven Miss USA winners to become Miss Universe in the history of the pageant.
Every year, each state holds a preliminary competition to choose their delegate for the Miss USA pageant. In some states (such as Texas and Florida), local pageants are also held to determine delegates for the state competition. The state winners hold the title "Miss State USA" for the year of their reign.
The most successful state is Texas, which has had the most semi-finalists and winners, including five consecutive Miss USA titleholders during the 1980s.[22] Other successful states include California, New York, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. The least successful states are Delaware, placing only once in 2015; Montana, which has not placed since the 1950s; South Dakota, which has only placed three times (the last time in 2016), and Wyoming, which gained only its second placement in 2010. The only state which has produced more than one Miss Universe is South Carolina.
The Miss Universe Organization licenses out the state pageants to pageant directors, who in some cases are responsible for more than one state. The most well established directorial groups are RPM Productions, created in 1980 (Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina), and Vanbros, created in the early 1990s (Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma). Future Productions direct the most states, seven, across the Midwest and Rockies.