Amber Hulse crowned Miss South Dakota USA, eyes future in public policy

Jun. 22—WATERTOWN, S.D. — As she heard her name called, Amber Hulse's mind went blank. Amidst glittering sequins and bright lights, she felt it all rush out of her mind.

She was now Miss South Dakota USA 2023. But it was a win that went beyond wearing the crown, or the "sparkly hat," as she likes to call it.

"One of the things that I want to talk about as Miss South Dakota USA is women going into politics," said Hulse, who studied law at Georgetown, now finishing her studies at the University of South Dakota.

"Not every teenage girl wants to be Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton or Nikki Haley. Those are kind of untouchable women that a 16 year old isn't necessarily going to relate to," Hulse said. "But if I get up there and say — in a sparkly hat — 'Hey, guess what? I did this cool pageant and won this thing,' but also, 'this is why I won — because I did all this other stuff that's more political or more academic,' you can push young girls to be more interested in these types of things that they wouldn't otherwise be, because there just aren't as many influences for them."

Hulse is uniquely well positioned to be that sort of voice. She grew up an only child on a ranch in Hot Springs, a town of 3,500 people. By her own account a "band geek," a mathlete who was affectionately called "queen of the nerds" by her friends, she never thought she'd get into pageants.

"I always say God needed a good laugh, that's why he pushed me to get involved in pageants. I was very, very nerdy growing up and didn't really care about what other people thought of me," Hulse said.

Her pageant career began after being dragged to compete by her "girly-girl" friend in middle school. Her day ended one crown later, which she said even surprised her mother.

Since then, she has come far. In 2019, she won Miss South Dakota — a different competition — and had competed in Miss America that year. It capped off a seven-year run of pageant competitions, during which she had also won numerous scholarships, allowing her to pay off her undergraduate tuition in full and attend law school.

Sitting in a law office in Virginia last summer, she thought she had put down the gown and crown, trading them in for law cases and a desk. Studying law to help people was her dream, one she had had ever since being a girl growing up in Hot Springs. Being at Georgetown was a part of that dream. So too was coming back to South Dakota — she had known for a long time that she had wanted to come back to her hometown. As for pageants, she wasn't as certain. But after deciding she was all in.

"I'm very intentional. When I'm going to do something I do it like 1,000%," she said.

Standing on the Watertown Event Center stage waiting for her name to be called was still nerve-wracking, she said. Would her months of countless early morning workouts — tucked tightly into days crammed with law school and an internship — be enough to bring the crown home? Would those sessions of walking practice and interview preparation be enough?

As she won the crown, her mind emptied.

"You prepare for so long and you visualize what you think you would feel like in that moment. But nothing will really ever prepare you for that moment," Hulse said.

The poise learned is a lesson from the Miss South Dakota USA pageant that she says she will carry forward.

"One thing I've learned, that I wasn't so good at when I was younger, is that you have to have a face for a mission or a movement that you're going to promote, who has to get out there and talk about it in snappy soundbites," Hulse said. "One of the reasons why I competed is because I wanted to learn how to become better at speaking and doing some of these public facing events."

As for the future? Miss South Dakota USA has her eye on public office, having done stints interning at the White House as well as the Virginia Attorney General's office, calling herself a "cowboy politico."

"My goal is to represent my community and potentially the state someday," she said. "I hope to write policy that can stand the test of time."

Even shinier than the "sparkly hat" she was awarded two weeks ago, the future — for her and her community — looks bright.