A video of Miss Kansas calling out her domestic violence abuser from the stage the night she was crowned is creating support on social media. Alexis Smith, who works overnight shifts as a cardiothoracic intensive care nurse in Wichita, was crowned Miss Kansas on June 8. She posted the video of her on-stage comments last week on X. Her comments are resonating with thousands after she called out her own abuser from the stage while she said the perpetrator was sitting in the audience, reports the Associated Press. The video has been viewed more than 60,000 times and generated a rash of news stories. “My vision as the next Miss Kansas is to eliminate unhealthy and abusive relationships,” Smith said at the pageant. “Matter of fact, some of you in this audience saw me very emotional because my abuser is here today. But that’s not going to stop me from being on this Miss Kansas stage and from representing as the next Miss Kansas.”
Smith cares deeply about domestic violence issues because not only was she a victim, but so were many of the other women in her family. “My family, every single woman in my family, was impacted by domestic violence,” she told Wichita television station KSN. “At the age of 14, I got in my first relationship, but it was also an abusive relationship that I was in until about 2018, 2019. It’s something that I’m still experiencing and dealing with today.” Smith moved to Texas after she escaped the relationship. She returned to Wichita to study nursing at Newman University.