Miss America Cara Mund is Speaking Out Against the Pageant Organization
North Dakota's first Miss America Cara Mund, from Bismarck, is blasting the pageant organization's leadership in a letter, saying she's been bullied and manipulated.
On Friday (August 17th), Mund sent a letter to former Miss Americas, speaking out against the Miss America Organization, including chairwoman Gretchen Carlson and CEO Regina Hopper.
Mund says in the letter that she's been excluded as a representative and spokesperson for the Miss America Organization. In an excerpt from the letter, Mund states:
Let me be blunt: I strongly believe that my voice is not heard nor wanted by our current leadership; nor do they have any interest in knowing who I am and how my experiences relate to positioning the organization for the future...Our chair and CEO have systematically silenced me, reduced me, marginalized me, and essentially erased me in my role as Miss America in subtle and not-so-subtle ways on a daily basis. After a while, the patterns have clearly emerged, and the sheer accumulation of the disrespect, passive-aggressive behavior, belittlement, and outright exclusion has taken a serious toll.
The letter also states there were three things Mund was told to mention in every interview; Miss America is relevant, Carlson started the #MeToo movement, and Carlson went to school at Stanford University.
Mund goes on to say in the letter that she was blamed for sponsors dropping Miss America because she was 'bad at social media.'
They post officially for me and as me — misspellings and all — without informing the public that it is not me posting...When they shrink my voice in this way, it eliminates my chance to be a spokesperson for my generation on the very platforms where we consume our content.
Mund had previously graduated with honors from Brown University and had worked for Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
Mund mentions in the letter that the Miss America Organization would often sabotage her by telling her the wrong location for events to make her look 'flaky'.
The entirety of the letter from Cara Mund can be seen here.
According to TMZ, a representative from the Miss America Organization has said:
The Miss America Organization supports Cara. It is disappointing that she chose to air her grievances publicly not privately. Her letter contains mischaracterizations and many unfounded accusations. We are reaching out to her privately to address her concerns.
Mund was unavailable for comment at the time of this post.
The letter from Mund comes just three weeks ahead of when the 2019 Miss America competition, which will take place on September 9th.