14 DAY TRIAL // As far as beauty pageant scandals go, this one holds promise to be huge. Last week, Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez was crowned Miss USA 2014 and, while the Internet initially agreed that she deserved to win, new developments have cast doubt whether she had any right to compete for Nevada in the first place.
You see, Nia wasn’t born in this state, having only moved here roughly one and a half years ago, hence accusations that she’s a carpetbagger, i.e. she moved from another state where she had no chances to win to Nevada, because her odds were looking better here.
Reports cited by Us Weekly say that Nia never really lived in Nevada, despite claims that she moved there some time ago: instead she “continued to work at Disney and live in California, setting up some minimum paper trail to appear like she was in Nevada and allow her to compete.”
There are even indications that she tried to compete in pageants in California in 2010, 2011, and 2012, meaning right before the alleged move to Nevada. It is then that she realized she had no chance in the competition running for California, and when she presumably came up with the idea of fictitiously moving to Nevada.
Sanchez has already spoken out on these reports, blasting them as false. She maintains she traveled all over the world but, as of 2013, she calls Nevada her home. The only reason she didn’t take part in the pageant that year was because she didn’t feel “ready” just yet and she was still under the minimum of 6-month residency to qualify.
You may choose to take her at her word, which many have already done. Then, the video below emerged online: it’s a segment from The Todd Show from Monday, in which Nia is taking part in a pop quiz and she suddenly freezes when she’s asked to name the capital of the state of Nevada. You know, her home state.
“Oh, um, ah, oh my gosh,” she mutters, covering her mouth with her hand. As she’s clearly struggling for words, the host can be heard answering the question for her: it’s Carson City.
“Thank you, I was going to say that!” Nia chimes in. “I was like, that one DJ host on MTV, back in the day, his name, that's how I always remembered it. Carson Daly, that guy!”
This could be just a coincidence because, after all, beauty queens are known to make some hilarious blunders. Just think back of what happened in 2007 with Miss South Carolina at the Miss Teen USA and you will remember just how bad they can mess up.
However, could this be too much of a coincidence? Shouldn’t Miss Nevada know the capital of the state she’s been calling home for a year and a half? Many think the answer to that question is a resounding “yes,” in which case, this incident is “proof” that she lied, that she’s a carpetbagger and, as such, that she had no right to win Miss USA as Miss Nevada.
