Governor Kathy Hochul has unveiled a new field office in Buffalo and has taken the chance to locally introduce her running mate in the gubernatorial race, Adrienne Adams.
Adams served as New York City’s speaker of the city council from 2022 to 2025. While introduced as Hochul’s running mate in February, Saturday marked Adams’s first public appearance in Buffalo.
Being asked to run for lieutenant governor was a surprise, Adams said.
“The only person that could have pulled me back into politics was Governor Kathy Hogan, the only person," she said. "For the first time in the history of the State of New York, two women will be at the top of the ticket.”
Setting governmental milestones is something Adams says she has experience with.
“After serving on the city council and being elected by my colleagues to serve as the council's first Black speaker, for leading the first women majority in the history of the City of New York for four years, I thought one chapter of my life was gone," she said.
She served as a council member from 2017 to 2025, when
she reached the eight-year term limit. She ran for New York City Mayor in 2025 but did not advance past primary elections and announced her brief retirement from politics in December.
