Alma Adams
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNorth Carolina's12th district
Incumbent
Assumed office November 12, 2014
Preceded by	Mel Watt
Member of theNorth Carolina House of Representatives
In office April 1994 – November 4, 2014
Preceded by	Herman Gist
Succeeded by	Ralph Johnson
Constituency	26th district (1994–2003) 58th district (2003–2014)
Personal details
Born	Alma Shealey (1946-05-27)May 27, 1946 (age 79) High Point, North Carolina, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Children	2
Education	North Carolina A&T State University (BS,MS) Ohio State University (PhD)
Signature
Website	House website Campaign website
Adams's voice Adams supporting the IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act. Recorded June 28, 2021

Alma Shealey Adams (born May 27, 1946) is an American politician who representsNorth Carolina's 12th congressional district in theUnited States House of Representatives. ADemocrat, Adams represented the state's 58thHouse district in Guilford County in theNorth Carolina General Assembly from her appointment in April 1994 until her election to Congress, succeeded byRalph C. Johnson.^[1]

Adams is a former college administrator and art professor fromGreensboro. She is known for her distinctive hats.^[2] She won the2014 special election in North Carolina's 12th congressional district to fill the vacancy created by the resignation ofMel Watt, becoming the 100th woman serving in the113th Congress. She won election to a full two-year term at the same time.^[3][4]

Adams was born on May 27, 1946, inHigh Point, North Carolina, to Benjamin Shealey and Mattie Stokes.^[5] She was raised by her mother, who worked as a domestic worker.^[6] Adams moved with her family toBaltimore, Maryland, as a child before settling inNewark, New Jersey.^[7] She attended the predominantly whiteWest Side High School in Newark and graduated in 1964.^[5]

Adams then went toNorth Carolina A&T State University inGreensboro, North Carolina, where she earned aBachelor of Science degree in 1969 and aMaster of Science degree in 1972, both in art education.^[7] While at NC A&T, she served as president of the Arts Circle and became a member ofAlpha Kappa Alpha sorority.^[6]

After completing her graduate studies, Adams was appointed chair of the art department at thePalmer Institute, where she taught students in grades seven through twelve.^[7] She later earned aPh.D. in art education and multicultural education fromOhio State University in 1981.^[5]

Adams later joined the faculty ofBennett College in Greensboro, where she taught until 2012.^[8] She was also the director of the Steel Hall Art Gallery.^[5] In 1990, Adams and artistEva Hamlin Miller co-founded the African American Atelier, an organization established to advance awareness and appreciation for visual arts and cultures ofAfrican Americans.^[9]

Adams began her political career as a member of the Greensboro City School Board from 1984 to 1986, before serving on the Greensboro City Council from 1987 until her appointment to theNorth Carolina House of Representatives in 1994.^[5][10]

She was appointed to the state House to fill the seat of Representative Herman Gist, who had died in office. At the time of her appointment, Adams had already announced her candidacy to challenge Gist in the upcoming Democratic primary in 1994. The house district included most of southeasternGreensboro inGuilford County.^[10] In the primary election, she defeated O.C. Stafford, a businessman, retired engineer, and perennial candidate, who had previously run for office as both aDemocrat and aRepublican.^[11] Adams won a full term in the 1994 general election, defeating Republican Roger G. Coffer.^[12] She went on to win reelection in 1996^[13] and 1998^[14] against Stafford, who ran as a Republican in both races.^[15] In 2000, Adams was unopposed in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican Jim Rumley in the general election.^[16][17]

Following redistricting in 2002, Adams' district was renumbered from the 26th to the 58th. That year, she was challenged byLibertarian candidate David Williams, who withdrew from the race before the election but remained on the ballot.^[18] Adams won reelection with nearly 86% of the vote.^[19] From 2004 onward, she faced repeated challenges from Republican legal assistant and party activist Olga Morgan Wright, defeating her in every election through 2008, and then again in 2012.^[20]

Adams defeated Wright and Libertarian challenger Walter Sperko with 66% of the vote in 2004.^[21] In the next election Adams had no competition in the primary; she defeated Wright in the general election 66%–34%.^[22] In 2008, the yearBarack Obama was elected president, Democratic voters had a high rate of participation, and Adams defeated Wright 71.35%–28.65%^[23] In 2010, Adams was challenged in the Democratic primary byRalph C. Johnson. She defeated Johnson with 76.56% of the vote.^[24] Adams next faced Republican Darin H. Thomas in the general election, beating him 63.15%–36.85%.^[25] In 2012, Adams had no primary opposition and defeated Olga Wright in the general election, 79.86%–20.14%.^[26]

During her tenure in the North Carolina House, Adams was elected chair of the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus and served a second term in that role in 2008.^[27] She also chaired the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus Foundation, which provides scholarships to students attending the state'sHistorically Black Colleges and Universities. Adams held leadership roles in several committees, including serving as vice chair of the Government Committee, chair of the Appropriations Committee, and vice chair of the Commerce, Small Business, and Entrepreneurship Committee.^[28][5]

In April 2013,Mel Watt, the only congressman to have served the 12th District since its creation in 1993, was appointed director of theFederal Housing Finance Agency. Adams was one of the first to announce that if Watt were confirmed, she would run in the ensuing special election. Watt was confirmed in December 2013. Adams formally filed paperwork to run in both the Democratic primary for a full two-year term in the114th Congress and thespecial election held in November 2014 to fill the balance of Watt's 11th term.^[29] Adams was sworn in on November 12, 2014, to complete the remaining seven weeks of Watt's term.^[30] After the swearing-in, Adams became the 100th female member of the congressional class, beating the previous record of 99.^[30]

Analysts thought that Adams was at a geographic disadvantage in the five-way primary for both the special and regular elections (held on the same day in November 2014). She is from Greensboro, but the bulk of the district's population is in Charlotte. But with three Charlotteans in the race splitting that region's vote, Adams won both primaries with about 44% of the vote,^[31] a few thousand votes over the 40% threshold needed to avoid arunoff. She faced Republican Vince Coakley, a former television and radio broadcaster from Matthews, in the general and special elections, which were held on the same day. The 12th was a heavily Democratic district with a majority-black voting population and aCook Partisan Voting Index of D+26, and Adams won both elections handily.

Adams is the second woman of color to represent North Carolina in the House. The first wasEva Clayton, who represented much of eastern North Carolina from 1992 to 2002.

A court-ordered redistricting in 2016 made the Adam's 12th district somewhat more compact. It now comprised nearly all ofMecklenburg County, home toCharlotte. Her home inGreensboro was drawn into the 13th district. She subsequently moved to Charlotte to remain in the 12th district.^[32] Whether she had moved by June was not clear.^[33]

With seven Charlotteans splitting the vote, Adams won the 2016 Democratic primary with 42%, just over the threshold to avoid a runoff.^[34][35] This all but assured her of a second full term; due to Charlotte and Mecklenburg County's heavy swing to the Democrats in recent years, the reconfigured 12th is no less Democratic than its predecessor.

Adams endorsedHillary Clinton in the2016 presidential election and pledged her support as asuperdelegate.^[36] She did not attend theInauguration of Donald Trump in 2017.^[37]

Adams and RepresentativesA. Donald McEachin andBrian Fitzpatrick introduced the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Act in 2022, would have theNational Park Service work with local governments to identify, survey, research, and preserve historic African American cemeteries and burial grounds. The legislation has bipartisan support in the House.^[38]

Adams voted to provide Israel with support following theOctober 7 attacks.^[39][40]

As of June, 2025, Adams has received an "A" rating from theNational Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) based on public statements and voting records.^[41]

• Committee on Agriculture (Vice Chair)
  • Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations
• Committee on Education and Labor
  • Subcommittee on Workforce Protections (Chair)
• Committee on Financial Services
  • Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion

• Black Maternal Health Caucus (Co-chair)^[42]
• Congressional Progressive Caucus^[43]
• Blue Collar Caucus
• Congressional Black Caucus
• Congressional Arts Caucus
• Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment^[44]
• Congressional Equality Caucus^[45]
• Congressional Caucus on Turkey and Turkish Americans^[46]

Adams is divorced and has two children.^[5][47] She is well known for wearing many distinctive hats,^[48][2] and owns more than nine hundred.^[6]

• List of African-American United States representatives
• Women in the United States House of Representatives

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAlma Adams.

• Congresswoman Alma Adams official U.S. House website
• Alma Adams for Congress

• Biography at theBiographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at theFederal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at theLibrary of Congress
• Profile atVote Smart
• Appearances onC-SPAN

• 1946 births
• 20th-century American women academics
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• African-American United States representatives
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• North Carolina A&T State University alumni
• Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology alumni
• Politicians from Newark, New Jersey
• West Side High School (New Jersey) alumni
• Women state legislators in North Carolina

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