The 2018 Miss South Carolina USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state South Carolina in the Miss USA pageant. The pageant has been produced by RPM Productions since 1980.
Miriam Stevenson, South Carolina's first Miss USA and the United States' first Miss Universe, was also the first Miss USA winner to have competed at Miss America. She was the first woman to have competed at Miss America, Miss USA, and Miss Universe. RPM's first winner was Shawn Weatherly, who also won Miss USA and went on to win Miss Universe.
Four Miss South Carolina USAs have also held the Miss South Carolina Teen USA title and competed at Miss Teen USA. Two have also competed at Miss America.
Miss South Carolina USA titleholders have also competed at two other major international pageants. Gina Tolleson, first runner-up at Miss USA 1990, went on to win the Miss World crown that year, and Miss South Carolina USA 2004, Amanda Pennekamp, has also competed at the Miss Earth 2006 pageant where she made the top 16.
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.