Regan Hutsell, Miss Texas 2026, was crowned Miss America 2027 on Sunday night in West Palm Beach, Florida, taking the title, a glittering crown and a $50,000 scholarship. The finals capped a week of preliminary competitions that also included the crowning of Miss America’s Teen 2027 on Saturday.
- Regan Hutsell of Texas won Miss America 2027 and received a ,000 scholarship.
- Ashlyn Mercier, an active-duty Westborough police officer, competed as Miss Massachusetts — the first active-duty officer to hold that state title.
- Miss America’s Teen 2027, Elle Anderson of Utah, was crowned the night before and won a ,000 scholarship.
Winner, prizes and what she performed
Hutsell, 25, who represented Texas, earned the national crown at the Palm Beach County Convention Center and begins a yearlong reign as Miss America 2027. According to reporting at the finals, she will receive $50,000 in scholarship money as part of her prize package and had earlier won preliminary talent and fitness awards, each carrying a $3,000 scholarship.
At the final competition Hutsell performed a jazz dance routine, walked in evening wear and answered on-stage questions; she also walked the fitness runway. Coverage notes that she has danced since childhood and that her dance résumé includes work with companies such as the Radio City Rockettes and the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Her stated community initiative, “Your Body is Your Home,” focuses on physical and mental health, and reporting cited previous public conversations she has had about recovering from an eating disorder.
Field and format
A total of 52 contestants took part in the Miss America finals, representing the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The Miss America contest, which traces roots to Atlantic City in 1921, followed its modern format of interviews, talent, evening wear and fitness competition, concluding with the selection of the national winner. The finals were streamed on the Miss America YouTube channel and PageantVision.com, and Jennifer Hale and Billy Gilman served as hosts.
Runners-up and scholarships
The top finishers included:
- First runner-up: Shelby Bordelon, Miss Louisiana 2026
- Second runner-up: Kate Dimmett, Miss Illinois 2026
- Third runner-up: Sharlize True Trujillo, Miss California 2026
- Fourth runner-up: Evelyn Smith, Miss District of Columbia 2026
According to reporting from the Miss America organization and local outlets, runners-up received scholarship awards in the range of $5,000 to $10,000. The Miss America Scholarship Foundation remains a central selling point of the competition: last year’s winner received a $50,000 tuition scholarship, and Miss America’s Teen also awards scholarship funds to its winner.
Miss America’s Teen and other highlights
On Saturday at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts the organization crowned Elle Anderson of Utah as Miss America’s Teen 2027. Anderson, a violinist, won a $30,000 scholarship and will serve as the Teen ambassador during her reign.
Historic candidacy from Massachusetts
One notable entrant this year was Ashlyn Mercier of Massachusetts, who made headlines by becoming the first active-duty police officer to be crowned Miss Massachusetts. Mercier, 26, is a Westborough Police Department officer who joined the force in 2022. She holds a bachelor’s degree in national security from the University of New Haven and a master’s in criminal justice with a concentration in cybercrime investigation and cybersecurity from Boston University, according to local reporting.
Mercier told reporters she hoped to use her platform to push back on narrow stereotypes about women in uniform, saying women do not have to choose a single identity. Coverage noted that she grew up watching her father, an Oxford police corporal, serve his community and that colleagues in Westborough rallied around her during the state competition and send-off events.
Context and implications
The Miss America organization continues to emphasize scholarship and advocacy after several years of structural change. The scholarship amounts and the presence of contestants with varied professional backgrounds illustrate the program’s positioning as an opportunity for education and public-service work as much as a traditional pageant.
Hutsell’s stated focus on body-image and mental-health advocacy ties into wider public conversations about how pageant platforms are used. Meanwhile, Mercier’s candidacy touched on debates over who represents public-service professions in cultural forums and the ways those professionals balance occupational responsibilities with public visibility.
What remains unresolved
Reporting around the event provides prize amounts, finalist names and the winners’ stated platforms but does not offer independent verification of long-term plans for any winner’s initiatives or the full scholarship disbursement schedule. The Miss America organization and state pageant offices have historically administered scholarships through their scholarship foundation; specific timelines for payments and conditions were not detailed in the cited coverage.
Timeline
- June 21, 2026: Ashlyn Mercier was crowned Miss Massachusetts (reported by local outlets).
- Early September 2026: Delegates arrived in West Palm Beach for competition week; Miss America’s Teen was crowned Saturday at the Kravis Center.
- Sunday night, September 6, 2026: Regan Hutsell was crowned Miss America 2027 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center and awarded a $50,000 scholarship.
Practical note for readers
The Miss America finals streamed on the Miss America YouTube channel and PageantVision.com. Local and national outlets provided contemporaneous coverage of winners, scholarship awards and contestant backgrounds.
“Women are so multifaceted and I’m just trying to show young girls that they can chase all of their dreams simultaneously,” Ashlyn Mercier told Fox News while representing Massachusetts on the national stage.
This article was compiled from reporting by al.com, The Palm Beach Post, MassLive, the Miss America organization and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Where multiple outlets reported the same fact, the detail is presented as reported; where coverage differs on ancillary details, those differences are noted in the text.
