Alma Adams

Alma Shealey Adams (born May 27, 1946) is an American politician who represents North Carolina's 12th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.

Adams was born on May 27, 1946, in High Point, North Carolina.

Her parents were Benjamin Shealey and the former Mattie Stokes.

She graduated from West Side High School in Newark, New Jersey, in 1964.

Adams received her B.S. degree in 1969 and her M.S. degree in 1972, both from North Carolina A&T University and both in art education.

She received her Ph.D. in art education/multicultural education from Ohio State University in 1981.

Adams is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Adams was a member of the Greensboro City School Board from 1984 to 1986 and a Greensboro City Council member from 1987 until her appointment to the House of Representatives in 1994.

He had challenged Gist as a Republican in the 1992 general election.

A Democrat, Adams represented the state's 58th House district in Guilford County in the North Carolina General Assembly from her appointment in April 1994 until her election to Congress, succeeded by Ralph C. Johnson.

A college administrator and art professor from Greensboro, Adams is known for her many distinctive hats (she claims to own 900).

She was appointed to North Carolina House in 1994 to replace Herman Gist, who died in office.

The district is in Guilford County and includes most of southeastern Greensboro.

She had already announced that she was going to challenge Gist in the Democratic primary that year.

After being appointed to the seat, Adams faced conservative businessman and retired engineer O. C. Stafford in the Democratic primary.

Stafford was a perennial candidate who had run for various offices, sometimes as a Democrat and sometimes as a Republican.

In 1994, as a Democrat, Stafford lost to Adams in the primary.

Adams won a full term in the general election, beating Republican Roger G. Coffer.

She faced a rematch with Stafford in the general elections of 1996 and 1998 when Stafford ran as a Republican.

Adams won both elections.

In 2000 Adams did not have an opponent in the Democratic primary; she defeated Republican real estate broker Jim Rumley in the general election.

In 2002, after redistricting, Adams's seat was changed from the 26th district to the 58th.

Her only challenger that year was Libertarian lawyer David Williams, who withdrew from the race in October because he was moving to Colorado.

His name still appeared on the ballot, but Adams won with nearly 86% of the vote.

Adams has been challenged for her seat for many years by Republican legal assistant and party activist Olga Morgan Wright.

Wright has run for the seat held by Adams in nearly every election since 2004.

Adams defeated Wright and Libertarian challenger Walter Sperko with 66% of the vote in 2004.

In the next election Adams had no competition in the primary; she defeated Wright in the general election 66%–34%.

In 2008, the year Barack Obama was elected president, Democratic voters had a high rate of participation, and Adams defeated Wright 71.35%–28.65%

In 2008, Adams was elected to a second term as chair of the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus.

Adams was vice-chair of the Government Committee in the state House.

Previously she was chair of the Appropriations Committee as well as vice-chair of the Commerce, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.

In 2010, Adams was challenged in the Democratic primary by Ralph C. Johnson.

She defeated Johnson with 76.56% of the vote.

Adams next faced Republican Darin H. Thomas in the general election, beating him 63.15%–36.85%.

In 2012, Adams had no primary opposition and defeated Olga Wright in the general election, 79.86%–20.14%.

In April 2013, Mel Watt, the only congressman to have served the 12th District since its creation in 1993, was appointed director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Adams was one of the first to announce that if Watt were confirmed, she would run in the ensuing special election.

She won the 2014 special election in North Carolina's 12th congressional district to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Mel Watt, becoming the 100th woman serving in the 113th Congress.

She won election to a full two-year term at the same time.