Miss Maine USA and Miss Maine Teen USA contestants pose on stage following the event at the Holiday Inn By the Bay. Bangor native Shelby Howell, left, was the winner. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

The crown of Miss Maine was placed on Shelby Howell’s head Sunday afternoon as the 24-year-old Bangor woman took center stage at Portland’s Holiday Inn By the Bay. While Howell shined in her sparkling gold dress and secured the title in the end, the spotlight was also on two other contestants and the pageant as a whole this year.

Jordon Hudson, the girlfriend of former New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick, and Isabelle St. Cyr, the pageant’s first openly transgender contestant, worked to stand out in the categories of swimsuit, evening gown and interview and drew national attention to the event.

Hudson, a 24-year-old entrepreneur, competed representing her hometown of Hancock. She was first runner-up in the 2024 Miss Maine pageant. This year, she was second runner-up and won the award for best personal style.

Jasmine Roy, center, of Bangor chats with friends on Saturday in the lobby of the Holiday Inn by the Bay prior to the start of Saturday's Miss Maine USA pageant in Portland. Roy, a 2024 graduate of Bangor High School, was a contestant for Miss Maine Teen USA in 2023. Daryn Slover/Portland Press Herald

A daughter of a fisherman and an outspoken supporter of the industry, Hudson is well-known for her relationship with Belichick, 74, now the head football coach at University of North Carolina. Belichick sat in the first row of the audience during the opening events on Saturday through the crowning on Sunday.

St. Cyr, also 24, wore a “Miss Monson” sash, representing the town where she lives on a farm with her partner. Stepping into the competition as the Trump administration targets transgender athletes in Maine, St. Cyr said she wants to use the spotlight to challenge stereotypes about trans people.

Miss Universe, the international pageant connected to Miss USA, has allowed trans women to compete since 2012. In 2021, Kataluna Enriquez was the first openly trans woman to compete in Miss USA as Miss Nevada, an inspiration to St. Cyr. Despite this, St. Cyr’s participation in the pageant drew both significant support and negativity online.

“The negative backlash is inevitable when you’re a trans person pretty much doing anything in America,” said St. Cyr in an interview in April. “I think I’ll be able to handle it well and with grace and continue to represent for not just transgender women, but women as a whole.”

Contestants were contractually prohibited from speaking to the media during the pageant.

National media coverage was unprecedented for the Maine event. Among an audience of about 200 were reporters from outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, People Magazine and New York Magazine.

The Miss Maine USA website also crashed on Sunday due to high traffic, a first according to the Clemente Organization, which runs Miss USA pageants in Maine and Massachusetts. Through the website, the public could vote on which contestants were “people’s choice” winners.

The remaining audience members were largely Mainers dressed in a mix of pageant-ready glam and L.L. Bean. With tickets to the event starting at $95 and rows of seats left unfilled, many attendees had a personal connection to a contestant in either Miss Maine or Miss Teen Maine, which occurred simultaneously. Some friends and family held signs with their contestant’s photo and name.

The pageant had competition rounds of swimsuit, evening gown and an interview, with the interview contributing to half of the contestant’s final score. The judges used criteria including “character, poise, confidence and personality” as well as “overall beauty and physical fitness.”

St. Cyr shared she was most looking forward to being on stage in a long-awaited moment, which she accomplished wearing a champagne-colored glittering evening gown and baby blue swimsuit. She advanced to the semifinals but was not in the top five contestants and therefore did not do an interview, which was reserved for the five finalists.

“That’s the part I’m most excited for,” said St. Cyr said last month. “To walk that stage confidently, as myself, in a bathing suit that makes me feel beautiful.”

Isabelle St. Cyr, 24, of Monson smiles at the Holiday Inn by the Bay after making history as the first transgender woman to compete in the Miss Maine USA pageant. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

For the interview portion, contestants drew a single question from a box. Hudson, for her interview, was asked what moment in her life she would relive and why. She shared that she would recreate a day on her family’s fishing boat in Hancock that she frequently rode growing up.

“I think about this really often, because there’s a mass exodus of fishermen that’s occurring in the rural areas of Maine, and I don’t want to see more fishermen displaced,” she said.

“As your next Miss Maine USA, I would make it a point to go into the communities, to go to the Legislature, to go into the government and advocate for these people so that they don’t have to think about these memories as a past moment,” she said.

Howell answered the question of “What does the phrase ‘living the good life’ mean to you?” She spoke about how her mother, as a single parent, lost their home and how that experience motivated Howell to create a nonprofit helping single parents achieve homeownership.

“That’s what makes me happy. That’s what makes me live a good life. Seeing the smiles on their faces and knowing that I’m truly making a difference, they can find the resources, they can make it through, and they can become protagonists in their own lives,” said Howell.

Soon after the interviews, Portland-resident Anne Baldridge, Miss Maine USA 2024, placed the crown on Howell’s head. Howell will go on to compete in Miss USA later this year, representing Maine. Jazmine Raine Werner, 16, was crowned Miss Maine Teen USA.

Despite national attention and theatrical pageantry, the event was low in drama. Christine Stewart drove back and forth from Bangor both days of the pageant to support Howell, her niece. Prior to the start of Sunday’s events, she shared the peek behind the curtain that Howell provided her.

“I think (the contestants) all feel good. And we asked Shelby, you know, ‘was there any drama behind the scenes?’ And she said, ‘There’s no drama,’” said Stewart.

“I think this is a generation of women where they really build each other up, so they’re all supportive of each other,” she said.