Savvy Shields, a college student from Arkansas, won the annual Miss America pageant on Sunday after impressing judges with a jazz dance routine and her answer to a question about her take on presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Shields, a native of Fayetteville and student at the University of Arkansas, was one of seven finalists given 20 seconds to answer highly topical questions on some controversial issues, such as immigration and Clinton rival, Donald Trump.
Asked what her take was on Clinton, Shields offered that “if you’re trying to be leader of the free world, everything you say and do matters.”
She noted that the media has sensationalized the campaign so that it was “hard to tell what is truth and scandal,” then added that “both these candidates have done a great job, but they also need to watch what they’re doing.”
Shields, who adopted “eat better, live better” as her platform for the competition, earlier performed a jazz dance to “They Just Keep Moving the Line” from the TV show “Smash.”
