The 2018 Miss Ohio USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Ohio in the Miss USA pageant.
Ohio achieved success in the first decades of the Miss USA competition but has not done as well in recent years. Ohio is one of only twelve states to win the Miss USA crown twice (Sue Downey in 1965 and Kim Seelbrede in 1981).
There are many notable Miss Ohio USA's; most famously actress and Oscar winner Halle Berry, who was 1st runner up to Miss USA in 1986. Others include Kim Mullen (2002) of Survivor: Palau, Melissa Proctor (1990), current director of the Miss Ohio USA and Miss Michigan USA pageants, Lesa Rummell (1977), mother of Miss Teen USA 2005, Allie LaForce, and actress / model / sportscaster Jayne Kennedy, née Jane Harrison (1970).
Two Miss Ohio USAs are former Miss Ohio Teen USAs who competed at Miss Teen USA.
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.