The 2018 Miss New York USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of New York in the Miss USA pageant. New York is one of the most successful states at Miss USA, and is ranked third in terms of number and value of placement across all years of competition [1]. New York's strongest run was an unbroken string of placements from 1957 to 1966. New York also had a streak of 3 consecutive 1st runner-up placements from 1972 to 1974. In 1954, Karin Huitman was 2nd runner-up. She later moved up to be 1st runner-up, as the original 1st runner-up, Miss Virginia USA was dethroned due to underage (she was 16). As there was no rule in 1954 that if Miss USA won Miss Universe, first runner-up became Miss USA, Karin was only 1st runner-up. Huitman went on to become Miss World USA 1954 and 1st runner-up at Miss World 1954.
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.