Another Pretty Woman: Miss America 2003 Erika Harold Dreams of Becoming First Black Female U.S. President
Crimea's new attorney-general, Natalia Poklonskaya, turned a lot of Japanese netizen's heads when she held a press conference to announce the latest political development in Crimea.
Read: Pretty Woman: Japanese Netizens Notice Beautiful Crimean Attorney-General
Soon, Chicago may have their own version of a young and pretty public servant in the person of former Miss America 2003 Erika Harold who is aiming to represent Illinois' 13th district in the Republican's primary election on Tuesday.
However, the ultimate dream of the 34-year-old Harvard law school graduate is to be the U.S. first black female president. She shared that vision with students at East St Louis High School in the same year she was crowned Miss America at age 22.
She is running against the incumbent, Rep Rodney Davis. Mr Davis is favoured in the primary and was preferred by 14 county GOP chairman in 2012 over Ms Harold. During that race, the ex-beauty queen was belittled by one local as a "streetwalker" and the "lovechild" of the DNC, although the offensive official later resigned and was rebuked by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.
Ms Harold said she was actually asked by GOP gubernatorial candidates to run as lieutenant governor for the state, but she turned down their offer because she felt she would be most competitive in the 14th district.
Other beauty contestants had used their pageant experience to enter politics. The list includes the 2008 Republican VP candidate Sarah Heath (Palin) who was third placer in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant, Miss Hawaii 2012 Lauren Cheaper who is now state house minority whip and Ms Harold's contemporary, Miss America 2003 third runner-up Teresa Benitez-Thompson, who was elected to the Nevada assembly in 2010 and chairs the committee on government affairs.
Certainly, the days of the dumb blonde beauties are numbered.