Miss USA made ‘multiple attempts’ to include 2024 queen in this year’s pageant: ‘We respect her decision’
Alma Cooper made shockwaves when she announced she wouldn’t attend the 2025 Miss USA pageant. Getty Images
Alma Cooper, Miss USA 2024, shocked fans by announcing just hours before the 2025 Miss USA pageant in Nevada that she would not attend to crown her successor.
The Miss USA Organization said they had made multiple efforts to include Cooper in the ceremony and were aware well in advance that she would skip the event.
“As the new ownership and leadership of the Miss USA Organization, we made multiple attempts to welcome Miss Cooper to the 2025 Miss USA competition to crown her successor and end her reign with the dignity becoming her title,” Miss USA President Thom Brodeur said in a statement. “We respect her decision not to attend and wish her well.”
A spokesperson added, “We invited Alma and knew ahead of time that she would not be in attendance. We would have loved to have her with us. She will always be our Miss USA 2024.”
Cooper provided limited explanation for her decision. “As I close this chapter, I do so with the knowledge that I finished what I started with integrity and my self-worth held high, just like the crown I was honored to wear,” she wrote on Instagram.
Her parents were similarly reserved. Her mother, Oralia, declined to comment, while her father, Stacey Cooper, said he did not know why she skipped the event. “I’m a hunter and fisher… retired military… my main concern is that she finishes school at Stanford,” he told The Post. Cooper, a West Point graduate, is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Data Science at Stanford as a Knight-Hennessy Fellow.
Fellow beauty queen Alyssa Campanella, Miss USA 2011, suggested Cooper faced challenges during her reign. “Alma spent the last 14 months keeping a title alive all on her own. No team behind her. To be Miss USA with no team and no salary is impossible, and yet she was determined to keep going,” Campanella wrote on Instagram.
Cooper had temporarily paused her graduate studies to fulfill her responsibilities as Miss USA and continue her Army recruiting work. She became the first active-duty Army officer to win the title. “For the past year, I have done my absolute best to honor the prestigious title while also serving as [First Lieutenant] Cooper in the U.S. Army,” she told People Magazine.
The Miss USA Organization has previously faced titleholder controversies. In 2024, both Miss USA Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava relinquished their crowns.
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