GROVETOWN, Ga. (WJBF) — The Miss Georgia USA pageant is taking place in a few weeks, and one of the contestants is from our area.
Frances Floresca Baldwin was crowned Miss Fort Eisenhower USA in December, but will be competing in Miss Georgia USA for the first time in a beauty pageant.
“A few years ago, I was involved with the program, and a woman said to me, ‘You should enter a pageant! You’re confident, you’re beautiful, you’re talented,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know, I’m getting married soon and I’ve got this whole thing going on,'” Floresca Baldwin said. “But the year after I got married, they announced that they were opening up the Miss USA system to married women and mothers, and I was like, ‘OK, this is my chance.'”
“I actually have friends who have been competing in beauty pageants for years, and I used to go to their pageants all around the country, so I kind of know what’s going on in the beauty pageant world,” Floresca Baldwin said.
She’s no stranger to the pageant world, but she’s also no stranger to being a military wife.
Her husband, Alec, has served in the Army for the past 10 years and is currently deployed overseas.
The couple met in Washington, D.C., moved to Las Vegas in 2022 and moved into the CSRA in October 2023, two months before she was awarded the title.
“We knew early on when we got married that it wasn’t going to be easy for us, and it taught us how to be more tenacious and to be more involved in the community,” she said.
But involved is an understatement.
Frances volunteers at Fort Eisenhower and works as a freelancer across the country in public policy and journalism while caring for her one-year-old boy.
“While I was in Washington, D.C., I was able to visit with Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who is a fierce advocate for protecting military families, my local representative, Congressman Rick Allen, who has overseen much of what goes on at Fort Eisenhower, and everyone in our district,” Floresca Baldwin said.
One of the ideas she brought to Senator Ossoff and his staff was improving learning for students in military communities.
“Solutions like improving mental health resources for children, and another part of my platform, is expanding school choice for children,” she said. “Kids move around a lot and the schools on base aren’t always the right fit for them, so expanding those opportunities throughout the community and making them more accessible for kids is always going to help military families.”
Floresca Baldwin said she hopes people learn from her experience that becoming a mother isn’t the end of one chapter, but the beginning of another.
“Becoming a mother doesn’t mean life is over. To be honest, my life has really just begun since my children were born. I’ve become much more involved in not only my children’s lives, but also my husband’s life and my career in public policy and journalism. I’ve found ways to balance everything I do and have a greater voice as a freelancer in my community.”
This year’s Miss Georgia USA pageant will be held June 13-15 at the Henry County Performing Arts Center in McDonough, Georgia.
Floresca Baldwin said she is excited about the opportunity and welcomes support from the CSRA.
To purchase tickets for the contest, click here.
