The 2018 Miss Virginia USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Virginia in the Miss USA pageant.
Virginia has been only moderately successful in terms of number of semi-finalists. They have had two Miss USAs. They are one of only three states to have had two Miss USAs in succession (the others being Illinois and Texas). Virginia's greatest success came from the late 1960s to early 1980s. Virginia should have had the first Miss USA crown in 1954, as Ellen Whitehead finished 1st runner-up, and Miss USA 1954, Miriam Stevenson, became Miss Universe 1954. However, there was no rule until the 1960s that the 1st runner-up became Miss USA after the winner won Miss Universe. If that was true, 2nd runner-up, Miss New York USA, Karin Hultman would have become Miss USA 1954, as Ellen was disqualified due to being underage.
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.