Hochul taps former NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams as her running mate

After months of speculation, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced she has tapped former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams as her running mate. Hochul’s choice of the Queens politician creates the first all-female statewide ticket for a major party in New York history – and only the fifth in the history of the country.

The governor touted Adams’ four-year tenure as Council Speaker in a press release. “Raised by two union workers, Adrienne knows what it means to work hard and stand up for those who need it most,” Hochul said in a statement. “That's why as New York City Council speaker, she led the charge to protect families, make housing more affordable, invest in our children, and stand up to anyone who seeks to harm our City.” The pair will make their first appearance as a ticket at a press conference tomorrow in Syracuse ahead of the state Democratic convention set to take place in the city Friday.

Hochul’s announcement comes just hours after her Democratic primary opponent Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado publicized his choice of India Walton, a democratic socialist from Buffalo who previously ran for mayor of the Western New York city. Unlike in years past, governor and lieutenant governors will run jointly in both the primary and general election, as opposed to only the general. The recent law change requires candidates to have an official running mate if they want to appear on the primary ballot. 

Although Adams’ name had not made recent reported LG shortlists, her selection should not come as a complete surprise for political observers. Her name was floated last summer when speculation about Hochul’s next LG first started to pick up. Adams’ lackluster performance in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, however, seemed to cool some of the rumors around her as other names began generating more chatter. 

Hochul told reporters Tuesday that she had extended an offer to only one person, despite reports to the contrary. 

Adams expressed excitement at joining the statewide ticket after term limits forced her to leave office last year. “I am honored to stand side by side with Governor Kathy Hochul in her fight for a safe, affordable, and resilient New York,” Adams said in a statement. She said she helped make progress on issues facing New Yorkers as City Council speaker, “but there’s more work to do – and with Governor Kathy Hochul’s leadership, we’re going to get it done together.”

Adams, a Southeast Queens native, is coming directly off four years as speaker of the City Council and a crowded Democratic mayoral primary last year in which she finished in fourth place. A relatively moderate Democrat – who once sparked concerns that she would be too politically aligned with moderate former Mayor Eric Adams (no relation) – she became the leader of a council that often challenged the former mayor from the left, pushing progressive legislation that the mayor fought. “To my surprise as well,” she told City & State last year, of acquiring a more progressive reputation after moves like fighting a federal immigration office at Rikers Island and passing police accountability legislation. “I’m a moderate,” she later said in that interview. “I still am pretty moderate from Southeast Queens, always have been.”

Adrienne Adams’ supporters in the mayoral primary saw potential for her to pick up the moderate Black outer-borough neighborhoods that had been the bedrock of Eric Adams’ 2021 mayoral victory, as Eric Adams’ chances of reelection plummeted amid his cascading scandals and legal troubles. That path never fully materialized for Adrienne Adams, as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo cut into those neighborhoods and eventual winner Mayor Zohran Mamdani overperformed in many parts of the city.

“I would never rule out elected office ever again,” she told City & State in December of her next steps. “It may not be the immediate thing, but who knows what’s on the horizon?”