Miss Oklahoma Alex Eppler Was A Miss America Fan Favorite, So How Did She Lose To New York?

Miss Oklahoma Alex Eppler embodies just about everything that pageant audiences love to watch. First of all, she’s an underdog; she lost the Miss Oklahoma title six times before finally landing the chance to compete at Miss America 2014. It’s that kind of commitment that makes avid viewers start calling dark horses early in the competition, and Miss Oklahoma was certainly one of the names being thrown around.

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Unfortunately, the last cut Miss Oklahoma made wasn’t even the close to the crown — although she did manage to place in the top 12. We’ll never know what it would have been like to have Eppler as our reigning Miss America; but from her resumé, we can at least imagine Alex would have been a pretty great candidate. The Miss Oklahoma winner graduated with honors from her state’s major university with a degree in medical science. Since then, Eppler has done significant charity work abroad, which has inspired her to want to become a medical missionary in impoverished communities.

“Alex has volunteered with various medical clinics, organizations and hospitals as she plans to become a physician’s assistant after her reign as Miss Oklahoma. Alex has worked with in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic, Mexico and even Kenya teaching health seminars, treating patients. While in Kenya, Alex helped treat over 5,000 patients in the slum of Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. Alex taught a community education class on mental health and helped the providers diagnose and treat patients.”

The winner, Miss New York Kira Kazantsev, was at least a good candidate for Miss Oklahoma to lose to, even though New York has now won three years in a row consecutively, according to the New York Daily News — which is hardly the underdog story that Eppler offered. Kazantsev should at the very least be lauded by better managing the tricky issue of sexual assault than Miss Nevada last year, who inspired ire from feminists who felt that she put the blame on women with her answer last year.

“I really believe that sexual assault in our military is an issue these women have got to fight for.”

Who do you think was the better choice? Miss Oklahoma Alex Eppler or Miss New York Kira Kazantsev?