Averie Bishop | |
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![]() Bishop in 2024 | |
Born | McKinney, Texas, U.S. |
Education | Southern Methodist University (BA, JD) |
Title | Miss Texas (2022) |
Political party | Democratic |
Website | Official website |
Averie Bishop is a social activist who is the first Asian American woman to be crowned Miss Texas. Her work focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and she co-founded a nonprofit supporting educational access for underserved communities. She was the second-runner up at Miss America 2023, and ran as the Democratic Party's candidate for Texas's 112th House of Representatives district in the 2024 elections.
Bishop was born in McKinney, Texas. [1] Her mother, a Filipina immigrant from Banga, South Cotabato, Mindanao, [2] worked as a maid and her father was a white and Cherokee [3] bus driver. [4] She attended schools in the Prosper Independent School District. [1] Since 2015, Bishop and her mother have run the Tulong Foundation, a nonprofit supporting education and accessibility to drinking water in impoverished communities in her mother's hometown of Banga, South Cotabato. [1] [2] By 2022, the foundation was sponsoring over 45 children. [2]
Bishop studied musical theater. [1] She completed her bachelor's degree and J.D. at Southern Methodist University. [1] While in law school, Bishop interned at a law firm in New York and for U.S. representative Sheila Jackson Lee. [4] In 2020, she began using TikTok during her first semester of law school. [2]
She began competing in beauty pageants to earn scholarship money for school. [4] In 2019, she won first competition, Miss Lufkin. [2] She subsequently won Miss Dallas in 2020 and Miss Carrollton in 2021. [2] In her third attempt, Bishop won the 2022 Miss Texas competition. [1] She is the first Asian to win Miss Texas. [4] At Miss America 2023, she was the second-runner up after Grace Stanke of Wisconsin and Taryn Delanie Smith of New York. [5] She won US$20,000(equivalent to $21,490 in 2024). [5] She started a consulting business in January 2022. [2]
Traditionally an apolitical position, during her year term as Miss Texas, Bishop's platform "Y’all Means All" [2] advocated for diversity and inclusion and the need for comprehensive sex education in schools. [4] She has also pushed for affordable health and reproductive care. [4] She opposed the overturning of Roe v. Wade . [4] Bishop lobbied Texas Republicans to consider the benefits of college diversity and inclusion programs before the Texas Legislature ultimately passed a ban. [4] She supports student loan forgiveness. [4] Bishop is a member of the Dallas Anti-Hate Advisory Council. [2] In 2022, Bishop appeared in Miss Saigon alongside Lou Diamond Phillips at Casa Mañana. [4]
On August 22, 2023, Bishop announced that she would run for Texas's 112th House of Representatives district in the 2024 elections. [6] She won the Democratic primary unopposed on March 5, 2024, and faced incumbent Republican representative Angie Chen Button in the general election. [7] Bishop received 47% of the vote, losing against Button's 53%. [8]