On Friday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m., Riley Johnson was announced as the 2026 Miss Auburn on the steps of Cater Hall.
Waiting on the Upper Quad lawn alongside her friends, supporters and fellow candidates, the crowd cheered for Johnson after her name was called. As she made her way up the steps to Cater Hall, she was greeted by former Miss Auburn Riley Parman.
After three-days of campaigning on the concourse, Johnson will now begin to implement her campaign, “Journey with Johnson,” which is inspired by her major in elementary education and her father who recently passed away a year ago. Johnson’s platform focuses on serving others with kindness during the start, middle and end of their journey.
Although Johnson initially felt speechless after hearing her name called out, she is “beyond excited” to serve as the next Miss Auburn. Johnson described this moment as “really special,” especially because her mother was a former Miss Auburn.
“This means just a lot for me and my family, and I know my dad's so proud,” Johnson said.
Johnson and Parman celebrated together and posed for photos with flowers at Cater Hall. Johnson praised Parman’s term as Miss Auburn, describing herself as being “in awe of her [Parman’s] leadership.”
“It means more than a title, and I've gotten to see Riley [Parman] throughout the past year because of being in War Eagle Girls. And she's just done such a good job of bringing together so many different types of people,” Johnson said. “I can't believe I get to step into the role and have her guide me through that, but it just means so much.”
The rank-choice voting system, which was first implemented during the last election cycle, was used during this election since no candidate received the majority of votes in the first round.
Johnson won 3,668 votes at 53.04% after three rounds of runoffs. Eliza Sundberg was eliminated in the first round of results before instant run-off with 757 votes at 8.23%. After an instant run-off was initiated, Meghan George was eliminated in the second run-off with 1,543 votes at 17.26%. Virginia Anne Holmes was eliminated in the third round of run-offs with 2,537 votes at 30.52%. Camilla Loard ended the night with 3,248 votes at 46.96%, losing to Johnson by 420 votes or 3.08%. During each run-off, Johnson maintained the largest share of votes.
In addition, Miss Auburn candidate Holmes was found to be in violation of SGA code 1008.5.11 for punishing Alpha Delta Pi sorority members who did not comply with required concoursing. Her penalty included communicating to Alpha Delta Pi that its members were not required to campaign, and her team was prohibited from actively campaigning in the “Lowder-320 zones” from 2 to 3 p.m. on election day.
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Jennifer Santiago, sophomore double majoring in political science and history, currently serves as the Newsletter Editor for The Auburn Plainsman. Since joining The Plainsman in the fall of 2024, she has previously served as a news writer and the Lifestyle Editor.
