The former New York City Council speaker and Gov. Kathy Hochul become the first all-woman ticket elected to lead the state.
By EEW Magazine Online Editors
Lt. Gov.-elect Adrienne Adams greets supporters at the New York Democrats’ election night event in New York on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul won as the state’s first all-woman ticket. (Photo by Angelina Katsanis/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Eleven months ago, Adrienne Adams said goodbye to City Hall and planned a quiet return to private life. On Tuesday night, the 65-year-old daughter of two union workers from Hollis, Queens, celebrated in Midtown Manhattan as New York’s lieutenant governor-elect. She is the first Black woman voters have chosen for the office.
She won alongside Gov. Kathy Hochul, who defeated Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to secure a second full term. Together they form the first all-woman ticket elected to lead the state.
The Associated Press called the race shortly after polls closed at 9 p.m. With most votes counted early Wednesday, the Hochul-Adams ticket led Blakeman and his running mate, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, by about 59% to 40%, according to unofficial results from the state Board of Elections.
At the Democratic watch party at the New York Hilton Midtown, Adams called standing beside Hochul “the honor of my life,” the Amsterdam News reported.
This is the second time Adams has broken a barrier in New York government. In January 2022, she became the first Black speaker of the New York City Council and led the first women-majority council in city history.
From left, New York Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Lt. Gov.-elect Adrienne Adams and Attorney General Letitia James celebrate their wins at the Democrats’ election night event in New York on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (Photo by Frank Franklin II/The Associated Press)
Term limits ended her council tenure in December 2025, months after she finished fourth in the Democratic primary for mayor. Adams told NY1 in August that she left City Hall, “did my happy dance, wished everybody well” and expected to return to the private sector.
Hochul changed those plans. She named Adams her running mate on Feb. 4 after a falling-out with Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who had launched a primary challenge against the governor. Delgado ended his campaign days later after falling short of the support needed for an automatic spot on the primary ballot.
Adams earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Spelman College, the historically Black women’s college in Atlanta, and spent years in corporate training before entering public service. She chaired Queens Community Board 12. In 2017 she became the first woman elected to represent City Council District 28, which includes Jamaica, Rochdale Village, Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park.
As speaker, she led negotiations on affordable housing, child care, public safety and health services. The council under her leadership took on racial disparities in maternal health, expanded postpartum mental health support and directed more resources to survivors of domestic and gender-based violence. Her tenure also brought protections against deed theft, new opportunities for minority-owned businesses and trauma recovery centers for communities affected by violence.
She often clashed with then-Mayor Eric Adams, who is no relation, over budget priorities and commissioner appointments.
On the campaign trail, Hochul and Adams focused on child care, housing, public safety and household costs. In her victory speech, Hochul pointed to their roots at opposite ends of the state. “A daughter of Buffalo, a daughter of Queens,” she said, according to Gothamist, describing two women from working-class families now chosen to lead New York.
Hochul became New York’s first female governor in August 2021 after Andrew Cuomo resigned. In 2022 she became the first woman elected to the office.
Adams takes office in January. The lieutenant governor presides over the state Senate and is first in line to succeed the governor. That is the same path that brought Hochul into office five years ago.
On Tuesday night, Adams kept the focus on families still under financial strain. “Someone is sitting at the kitchen table, deciding which bill could wait,” she told supporters, according to amNewYork.