Dethroned Miss North Carolina USA files lawsuit, says she was stripped of crown over conservative beliefs

(NEXSTAR) – Brittany Boltinhouse, who was recently dethroned as Miss North Carolina USA , has filed a lawsuit against the organizers of the Miss USA and Miss North Carolina USA pageants, claiming she was targeted for her “conservative Christian” views.

Boltinhouse was stripped of her title earlier this month over “recently surfaced information” that went against the “standards and values” of the pageant, a statement released by A Blaize Productions, the organizers of Miss North Carolina USA, announced on Aug. 5. At the time, A Blaize Productions did not detail any of the “information” that led to their decision. But in a separate statement, Miss USA president and CEO Thom Brodeur appeared to indicate incidents of discriminatory actions or statements.

“The Miss USA organization does not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia nor language that strips any person of their dignity — whoever they are,” Brodeur’s statement, made public on Instagram on Aug. 6, read.

Reports later surfaced of Boltinhouse using the word “n—a” on social media in 2017 and 2019.

In the lawsuit, which names the Miss USA organization and A Blaize Productions among the defendants, lawyers for Boltinhouse did not deny that their client used this term on social media. But they contended that the posts are “in no way evidence she is a racist, homophobe, transphobe or a bigot who should be shunned from public life as Defendants set about and conspired to cause with their defamatory social media posts.”

Instead, Boltinhouse’s lawsuit argues that pageant organizers conspired to replace Boltinhouse and defame her over her support for conservative politicians and figures, including President Donald Trump, Andrew and Tristan Tate, and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Another social media post included in the documents shows Boltinhouse had spoken out against President Joe Biden’s “Transgender Day of Visibility” in 2024, suggesting it was part of a “moral decay” that went against American and Christian values.

Boltinhouse, as part of a TPUSA trip, also attended Trump’s speech on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, the lawsuit says, though she did not “approach or enter the Capitol Building” afterward, according to court documents obtained by Nexstar.

“Defendants hid from the public the real reason they dethroned Brittany: [S]he is a conservative Christian,” her lawyers claim in the lawsuit.

They further allege that an apology from Boltinhouse, which was mentioned in Brodeur’s Aug. 6 statement, had never been approved or agreed to by their client.

Boltinhouse is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorneys’ fees.

Representatives for the Miss USA organization or A Blaize Productions did not immediately return a request for comment.

Boltinhouse, from Duplin County, North Carolina, won the Miss North Carolina USA pageant on June 28, 2026. Speaking with The Duplin Times after her win, she said she entered the pageant — her first ever — to get in touch with her femininity after starting a flooring business with her husband.

“I’m in such a male-dominated field that it didn’t allow me to be girly,” she told the outlet.

Boltinhouse, who was 27 when she won the crown, was slated to compete in the upcoming Miss USA pageant, which kicks off this week in Miami. North Carolina is instead being represented by Myla Hadley, who was crowned in Boltinhouse’s stead.

“I understand the seriousness and level of prestige that this title carries, and I can confidently say that both my team and I are ready to take this on,” Hadley wrote earlier this month on Instagram.