Alma Adams on Defending Charlotte Against ‘Wannabe Dictator’ Trump and What Democrats Need to Do in 2026

 

On Dec. 18, US Rep. Alma Adams, whose 12th Congressional district covers most of Charlotte and some smaller splinters of Mecklenburg County, stood alongside dozens of her Democratic colleagues on the steps of the US Capitol to demand a vote on the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits extension.

Among nearly 100 reps who took to those steps to back up Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic leader of the House, Adams was easily identifiable for the same reason she is almost always easily identifiable: her wide-brimmed hat. 

Adams is known for her impressive hat collection, which not only defines her style but her openness to different looks and different points of view.

A teacher for over 40 years, Adams began her political career as a member of the Greensboro City School Board in 1984 before moving on to the Greensboro City Council and then the NC House of Representatives in 1994. 

The same day she stood on those steps of the Capitol, Adams sat down with Queen City Nerve to talk about the issues we face heading into the new year.

Already a six-term representative — she became the 100th woman to serve in Congress when she was elected in 2014 — Adams will seek her seventh in 2026. She knows there’s still lots of work to be done amid the turmoil and division of another Donald Trump presidency. 

During our end-of-year chat, Adams addressed the spotlight put on Charlotte by the Iryna Zarutska light rail tragedy and the incursion into our city by federal law enforcement agents. 

She also offered her suggestions for tightening Trump’s free rein, securing health care for those in need, and changing the direction of the country. 

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity. 

Queen City Nerve: We saw two happenings in 2025 that put Charlotte in the spotlight and under the denigration of President Donald Trump, starting with the Iryna Zarutska murder in August. What role did you see for yourself in defending Charlotte from presidential attacks, especially when so much of what he and other Republicans said about Charlotte was either untrue or misleading regarding who was responsible for certain policies in the courts and sentencing? 

US Rep. Alma Adams: I’m going to always defend Charlotte. I did that and I’m continuing to do that. I think the president was completely wrong about our city. He’s never been there to really know what Charlotte is about. I think that he, as some of the other members, colleagues of mine, don’t have all the details about Charlotte. But Charlotte is a good city. People are coming in every day; 100-150 people. I think that we have done a pretty good job of trying to keep our city safe. Our numbers are up in terms of the safety in the community. 

I certainly did not agree with the president. I’ve spoken out about it. I’ve written to the administration about it, not just about that, but also about what happened after that, sending in these armed folks [with Customs & Border Protection] to raid our community. I’m going to always stand up and speak up for Charlotte. I think the president sometimes speaks out of turn and it really did put our community in a bad light. But I had a press conference before the actual hearing that the Republicans held … I along with Representative [Deborah] Ross, we were the only two Democrats there. I’m not on that committee, but because I do represent Charlotte, I felt it was certainly important for me to be there. 

Read more: Community Leaders Protest Politicization of Iryna Zarutska’s Murder Outside Hearing

I think it was a terrible thing that happened. Let me just, first of all, say that my thoughts and prayers and heart still goes out to that family. I did have an opportunity to talk with someone who was representing the family who did not want those visuals continuing to be shown. I think some people took advantage of that as an opportunity and I felt like it was more politically motivated

than anything else. But the president has gone around Charlotte, and it was just one of many cities that he has continued to attack. I’m going to continue to stand up for Charlotte because Charlotte has stood up for me. 

Regarding the CBP incursion into Charlotte, how did you work to help and defend your constituents at that time when they were here? 

Alma Adams: Well, first of all, we had a number of people who, [in] our community businesses, our small businesses, many of them in the Hispanic community, which is in the area that I live in around Central Avenue, [CBP] continued to go in, pull people out, arrest people who actually shouldn’t have been arrested, people who were citizens. I’ve spoken out on these issues, not only on the floor of the House but also in letters that I’ve written to the administration. I asked them, for example, 15 questions, and we’re still waiting for the answers. Who did you arrest? Why did you arrest them? What did they do? I asked them to respond to the mistreatment that we saw with our own eyes on video. People were taking pictures. 

I also participated in a session at one of our local churches. As a matter of fact, it was hosted at my church [Mayfield Missionary Memorial Baptist Church on Sugar Creek Road], where people were being taught how to deal with and not only protect themselves, but to know what rights they had, what they could and what they couldn’t do and to take pictures. I’ve got a number of radio ads running still. If things were done to you, to members of your family, if you can’t find people and you’re looking for people, reach out to my office because we’re investigating that. 

Those 15 questions that I did ask had to do also with the property damage, with the other damages that were done to people, to their properties, to our businesses, et cetera. But I met with many of the community entities that were actually working to not only keep people safe but with our immigrant community to help them understand what was happening, to help locate people. We have a couple of folks right now that we are working with through my office to try to identify for the families where they’re being held and the treatment that they’re getting. We are inextricably still involved now. 

I’m still waiting for the administration to get back to me. The only thing they said, they sent us an email back to my email … The only response we got was, “We are in receipt of your letter.” I guess for them, that’s a response, but for us, it’s not sufficient. I do expect to get some answers to the questions that we have asked. 

With your decision to run for reelection in 2026, what do you think you can continue to offer that can change the direction our country is taking right now? 

Alma Adams: I think when we look at the condition that our country is in, the administration, in my opinion, is not as sensitive as it needs to be with all of the many things that have happened that really hurt our citizens. We’ve been dealing with the health care issue. We’ve been dealing with homelessness and all these other things. I think you’re going to need someone in this position who does have the experience, the skill, and the ability to get things done, to work across the aisle. Certainly, that has been me. I continue to do that. 

I have bipartisan caucuses as well, but I’ve also worked on legislation. But I do think in terms of getting our country back, we’ve got to do a number of things. I look at them as AAA: accountability, accessibility and affordability. Our citizens have got to make sure that they have a good quality of life. That means you have to have a decent job. You’ve got to have jobs that pay a living wage. I’ve been working on that issue ever since I was in the North Carolina House, and we’re continuing to do that. 

We cannot afford to have people who are hungry and who go to bed hungry every night. We’ve got to do something about the food insecurity. I work on four Hs here: housing, health care, higher education, and hunger. All those things interact with our community of Charlotte and Mecklenburg [County]. I’m going to continue to work on those things. I have started many of the things that we’re working on and being able to come back to Washington to complete that work, whether it’s making sure that our K-12 schools and [Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools] schools have what they need, as we have decimated the Department of Education. 

I was an educator for more than 40 years. I understand what we need and what we’re going to have to do for our community in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. I’ve been working very closely with the school board and the school board chair in particular. I think I bring a level of knowledge, skill and ability to this job. I have demonstrated that I have been accessible, I’ve been accountable, and I’ve been effective in bringing billions of dollars into Charlotte [through] legislation that will help our communities, including our airport. 

As it relates to public schools, our universities, our community overall, in terms of the community projects, the funding that we have provided for health care, the funding that we have provided for housing, the funding that we have provided for constituents in terms of getting the support that they need from the federal government; we try to do that in terms of casework through my Charlotte office. So we’ve been effective, we’ve been accessible, and I think that the community has shown its support for the support that I have given to them. They’ve given it to me to continue to serve them. 

What were your thoughts last November when Donald Trump was not only reelected but won the popular vote? 

Alma Adams: I thought we needed to go back and count the votes. I wasn’t sure what happened there. I don’t want to say, “Did they steal some votes from us?” I think he fooled a lot of people. Donald Trump, he’s a television personality. He had his own show, [his book] The Art of the Deal, he also knows how to make deals, and sometimes some of the deals, in my opinion, are not credible. 

I think he made a deal with the citizens across this country. He said, “We’re going to lower your cost and I’m going to do it on day one. I’m going to stop this war.” Everything he said that he was going to do, I think people needed. They needed their cost of living in such a way that they could afford it. They needed to have lower costs when they went to the grocery store, when they pulled up to put gas in their car. They needed those things. And he was a good salesman. He lied a lot. All you have to do is see what’s going on right now and the fact that people are so disgruntled and dissatisfied with him, including the people who voted for him. 

Many of the people didn’t think he was going to do this. His focus has not been on improving the quality of life for everyday people who work hard every day. Working hard is not enough if you don’t make enough. So many people are working two and three jobs. When you see what this administration has cut; I sit on [the Committee on] Agriculture and we’ve cut billions of dollars from SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] when I know that in our community of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, we have so many people who are food insecure, which is why when I first came to Congress, I started the Adams Hunger initiative. It’s still going on. We’re still interacting in communities. 

Read more: Farmers, Hunger Relief Orgs Call for Budget Passage at Critical Time for NC Families

When we had the shutdown, the Republican shutdown by the way, I was out there making sure that people were fed, helping the organizations that provide food for our citizens, including our churches, and they’re doing a lot of that, too. So the president conned a lot of people and now we’re seeing that in his low ratings. People are just not happy. When he talks about affordability being a hoax, it’s not a hoax. It’s a hoax if you can afford every doggone thing, and he can afford everything. 

So affordability means absolutely nothing to him. But for the people that I represent, for the 88,000 people in Charlotte-Mecklenburg who rely on the affordable tax credits to ensure that they have health insurance, it means affordability is really key for us, and it’s key for me. I didn’t have health insurance growing up, which is why I don’t want that to be something that the citizens that I represent have to face every day. 

Let me go back to the election last November. There’s analysis saying that Democratic stances were “too woke,” while others say people simply didn’t know what policies the party was putting forward. Have the Democrats in power right now seriously considered what their agenda is? And if it’s not speaking to a big enough part of the populace, should that strategy change? 

Alma Adams: I think you can have the right message but you also have to deliver it the right way. I think we have always been concerned about the people who a lot of folks just disregard. Democrats have been the ones to stand up for, as our leader says, the least, the lost and the left behind. So many people have been left behind. I think our message has been clear. Of course, we can work on our delivery, and we’re doing that, but I think that the communities of this country are standing with Democrats. They are realizing that they were sold a bill of goods with this president saying that he was going to help make life more affordable and so forth, and he didn’t do that. 

But I think we probably could have and should have made sure that we got the message out the right way so that everybody understands it … We have to make sure that people know what we have done to help them. We were the ones under the Biden administration, for example, that made [it so] if you were diabetic, [it costs a maximum of] $35 for your prescription. We’re the ones that have provided the additional funding for our schools, for our communities, for housing and all those things. Maybe we didn’t say it loud enough, but we’re screaming it high right now. 

I think it’s shown in all of the recent elections that we have won, whether we’re talking about New Jersey or New York or all these other places. So I think the citizens are getting the message that Democrats, not only that we care about their survival, and we’re talking about their ability to not only survive, but to thrive. That’s important. People are just barely making it working two and three jobs, trying to make ends meet. This administration has done so many things to tear those things down. And part of my job as a member of Congress is to make sure that citizens understand what’s happening to them, but also to challenge the administration. And listen, I’m not shy about that, and we’re going to continue to do that and hold them accountable, including Speaker [of the House Mike] Johnson. 

It sounds like you’re saying that you don’t think the Democrats got the message out as well as they needed to last year. 

Alma Adams: Probably not. We could always do a better job. Good communication is always a two-way street. And what I say to you, I may understand what I’m saying, but if you don’t understand what I’m saying, then that becomes a problem. If you have a good message, you have to deliver it in a way that everybody understands the way you intended for it to be said. 

It seems Republicans will do whatever they can to win elections while Democrats try to play fair and do what’s right. While Democrats might have the interests of the people in mind, you can only implement policies if you win. Is a change in philosophy needed? 

Alma Adams: Well, I tell you, I don’t know that change. We’re going to have to fight fire with fire, I believe. But I also think we have to be honest with people … We need to be a little tougher, but I don’t think we need to be crooked. Now, If we have free and fair elections, and that’s what I think Republicans are really concerned about, they’re afraid of free and fair elections because they’d lose. So the only way they feel they can win is to cheat. I mean, for the president to say, “I deserve five more seats.” Really? That’s ridiculous. Why do you deserve five more seats in this particular state? Why did you deserve even another seat in North Carolina? 

This gerrymandering has just gone overboard. When we look at North Carolina, we have 14 districts and we had an even distribution. If you go back to what, three or four years ago, it was seven and seven, which means our community is almost equally divided. By community, I mean, our state. To now have 11 Republicans and three Democrats … We’ve [currently] got four … I’m not going to sell Representative Don Davis short. He might pull it off, and I hope he does, and we’re going to do our best to help him, but they went back and decimated that 1st district, which has always been held by an African-American. In a sense, they have really attacked our community. 

Read more: Voting Rights Advocates Speak Against Racial Targeting in NC Redistricting Effort

But, yeah, they don’t play fair. Democrats have tried to do it, but we have a strategy. We have a very capable leader in Hakeem Jeffries. I just believe that all you have to do is look and see what’s happening across the country in these votes that have been taken in the past few weeks. People are voting for Democrats because, first of all, we’re getting the message out, and we’re getting the message right. But also, it’s a true message. It’s an accurate message. It shows that the Democrats are not only accountable, but when people started looking at it, I think they said, “You know what? We’ve had it.” 

They say sometimes, the grass is greener on the other side. You think so until you get over there and it’s really brown. I think that’s what happened with folks. They thought the grass was greener with Donald Trump, but everything he’s done has been about himself, about making money on the American people, about tearing things down. I don’t know. I didn’t know him when he was a little boy, but I think he tore up a whole lot of things. But tearing up the White House; this man has had no accountability. We have a very weak speaker of the House. Donald Trump is the Congress. Our responsibilities have been turned over to him, our jobs, by the speaker. He’s just letting the man do whatever he wants to do and he’s not challenging him on anything. 

And so if they don’t stand up, then, of course Donald Trump is not going to listen to Democrats, because that’s all he did in that [Dec. 17 presidential address] was blame everything on Democrats. And he’s in the seat. It’s not about who was, it’s about who is now and what you’re doing. People aren’t buying that. 

So let me ask you then, based on what you just said. What are Democrats doing or what can they do to stop Donald Trump, because he’s seemingly doing whatever he wants without regard to law since he’s taken office this time? 

Alma Adams: We’re going to take the lead in these elections that are coming up in these midterms. That’s the first thing. So he won’t have control of everything. Now, we can’t take him out of the job that he has in the White House until that election comes … we’re working right now to make some things happen in the midterm, and then the midterm will lead to the next election. We’re going to take the House back. The only thing I know about is the House, but hopefully, we’ll take the Senate back as well. That’s how you take control. Everything is about who’s in office and the power that they have to do what they do. I just think for the Democrats, it’s a good sign out here that the people are now looking at what was promised and what was not kept. 

So are you saying that Democrats don’t have much control of anything unless they win the House or Senate back next year? 

Alma Adams: Well, no, I’m not saying that. I’m saying that’s going to be good for us to do that. But in the meantime, we can be some deal makers, too, right? We did; we got this discharge petition … we have our own health care bill, which would extend the Affordable Care tax credits, which we need to do … Four Republicans who came on to sign on to give us the number that we need … We have to hear it by the first week or the second week in January. So it’s going to be heard. And we have to have a vote on it. So those are the kinds of things working across the aisle where we can get some of our Republican colleagues [to sign on with us]. 

Because let me just tell you that health care, everybody needs it. If you live, the Lord spares you, and young or old, you’re going to need to see a doctor at some point in your lifetime. To have that availability, to do that, to be able to afford to do it. If you don’t have health insurance now, you go to a doctor, the first thing they want to know, you go to a hospital, where’s your insurance card, right? You better pull something out. And so it’s critical. And it’s not a partisan issue. It’s not about Democrats or Republicans; it’s about people. It’s a human thing. I think even our Republican colleagues who may not fully agree with us on some things, they all agree that constituents in their districts are saying, “My premiums are going up.” 

I had somebody tell me that they’re paying $500 now, and they’ve got a notification that their premiums are going up to $1,000 or $1,500. I mean, people can’t afford that. Not just Democrats can’t afford it, Republicans can’t either. And so these folks in these other districts, they are seeing the light. And so that’s what we have to do until we get to that point of being able to fully take back our chamber and the Senate takes its chamber, and then we get this president out of office and get someone in there. But what he’s trying to do, because he won’t be there, he’s not going to run, he can’t run, but he wants to set things up so that Republicans will be able to control. That’s why they’re still in these seats around the country. That’s why they’re doing that. They’re cheating. They can’t win a fair race, so they thought they would just rig it. 

You speak regularly on the importance of local elections, which is something we try to voice at Queen City Nerve regularly. Why is that an important message for you? 

Alma Adams: I think we have to always look at every office that we elect from the local elections, particularly as it relates to Congress. Looking at our state elections, I tell people all the time, who represents you in Congress is determined by who represents you, in our case, in the North Carolina General Assembly. We have to be intentional about who we are sending to our state legislature. I served there. I know that crowd. I know what they do. They don’t even have a budget right now. The only state in the nation [where] they don’t have a budget. That impacts our local economy. That impacts our local education system because they don’t have the funding for CMS and all of our school systems because this budget is just sitting there. 

You also regularly discuss the need for bipartisanship, a word that almost seems antiquated or impossible at this point. What does bipartisanship mean in 2026?  

Alma Adams: I think what we really need to do, again, is to have the kinds of relationships that we used to have here that were truly bipartisan, where we work together. To produce a bill, pass a bill out of the House or the Senate that’s just a Republican [creation] … that big, beautifully ugly thing that they’re calling a Big, Beautiful Bill, it’s going to hurt a lot of beautiful people. It has already. But they didn’t ask us for our opinion as Democrats. And I think it’s about the leadership. 

This president, he’s a mean-spirited, uncompassionate person. He wants to be a dictator. He acts like one because if he wasn’t dictating, then you would think that our speaker of the house would be able to stand up and say, “No, Mr. President.” This is what the Congress is supposed to be doing. You need to get approval from the Congress, but he won’t do that. And so that means that he’s basically taking his directions from Donald Trump. So we don’t need that speaker. I hope they get rid of him. I don’t think he’ll ever win again, but I’m not sure that his people will send him back here. It’s so important to have leaders with principle. If you don’t have that, if you’re not going to do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, you need to get the hell someplace else. This is not the job for you. 

It seems the Democrats are losing a lot of younger voters to the Republican Party. It seems like Republicans are spending a lot more money on trying to get those young voters into their party, where the Democrats are spending a hell of a lot less. What can the Democratic Party do to turn that trend around?

Alma Adams: Well, listen, do a roll call and look at all the young folks we have right here in the Congress, those who are coming in. Matter of fact, we’ve got some folks coming in who were impacted by the Parkland shooting. There’s one young man [Cameron Kasky] running. We have Representative (Maxwell) Frost. When he started running he was 24, but he turned 25 when it was time for him to actually be sworn in. But we have a whole slew of folks who are young. So we are recruiting. 

We have a number of young people out there, younger folks who are bringing in younger people. I don’t think that Republicans are going to have much on that. They need to do something about their diversity, right? In terms of, well, they do have a few Black folks, and they got a lot of women, but they don’t get women in any position. You don’t have anybody in the Republican Party in any leadership. You have one or two, Virginia Foxx [NC-5}, but that’s about it. And they’re going to lose some of the people that they have. 

What I’m really talking about, though, is, for instance, Turning Point USA and other organizations like them have been spending a ton of money trying to get young voters into the Republican Party. It seems like the Democrats are falling behind right now in terms of young voters, not just young people in Congress. 

Alma Adams: That’s what I was going to ask you. All the people who are coming in, are they actually voting? When you look at numbers across this country, and I look at them a lot, you’ve got more people on the rolls, and when I was teaching, I used to tell my students to have a voter registration card in your pocket. I would encourage them. Listen, if you’re living in Guilford County or Forsyth County or Mecklenburg County, you may be from someplace else, but if you’re going to be here as a student for three or four years, you want to think about what it would mean if you were able to vote here to impact the education in your community, to impact your school. It’s about the numbers that you bring in … It’s more so about the numbers that actually vote. I think that that’s what we have to work on. But I heard something, and they probably haven’t released it yet, but I think there’s some Turning Points occurring in the Democratic Party, too, right now. But I’ll let those folks announce what they’re doing.

How can the Democrats change the proliferation of mega billionaires and corporations basically controlling politics now? It certainly seems to many of us that these people are running the country rather than our representatives. 

Alma Adams: I think in terms of who’s controlling those kinds of things, again, the leadership begins at the top. If you get a credible, decent person who has some compassion for people and for doing right by people, then other folks will follow. And so I just think, unfortunately, too many of my Republican colleagues are following a leader who is, in my opinion, he’s just destroying people. He destroys things. He tears stuff up. From the White House to everywhere else. Everything should be about him. He’s changing. He’s putting his name on everything. Everything’s gold. It’s like he’s got this obsession about himself. 

And I don’t know, this ballroom … He doesn’t have any respect for property. “Oh, I can do this because I’m the president.” Well, there are some constraints on every office that you hold, including the president, and we have three branches of government and they are all not supposed to be run out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But nobody’s stopping them who can. If I could stop them, I would, but I can’t. Then, I’m just saying, the person who can and the party who can, they’re just afraid. And when they say something that he doesn’t like, then he goes after them. I mean, just look at everybody that he’s going after. You don’t even have to say anything. He’s going to keep going after you.

Talking about the next presidential election in 2028. Is there a rising star right now that you see in the Democratic organization that could take over the party and lead you all forward right now? Do you see anybody who you think is going to take that mantle in the next couple of years? 

Alma Adams: I think it’s going to come about, but I think our initial focus will be on getting Hakeem Jeffries as our speaker of the house, a brilliant young man who has the support of the caucus, who is intentional about what he does, what he says, the way he does it, and is a tremendous leader. We’re going to take it from there because people are coming in and out. We don’t know. 

There’s some folks who I thought were going to be here who are not, who won’t be. That’s one of the reasons why I’m going to hang my hat in the game because we have a lot of work that we need to get done. I have some personal legislation that I’m working on. We’re getting closer than close. It’s all bipartisan, by the way, because I just think that so much of what we do impacts all of us, regardless of party affiliation, and that’s important to me.

Donald Trump’s decisions are hurting a lot of people, obviously, including here in North Carolina from dramatic increases in health care costs dramatically to the effects of tariffs on consumers and so many other issues. Is there any hope that a Democrat can enter office at some point in the future and actually reverse this damage? 

Alma Adams: When a Democrat gets back in office, we’re going to make a lot of changes. We’re going to have to correct some of the corruption that has happened. It’s going to take a while. I wish we could do it all as he did on the first day, lines up all of these executive orders, although they are not laws, and signs off on things. I think we’re going to have to move quickly and intentionally about many of the things that have impacted our citizens in a way that has really damaged our community. 

We’ve got to correct the problems that he’s created in education, like restoring the Department of Education. I mean, for goodness damn sakes, why would you want to not have a Department of Education? Everybody needs a teacher. And so from education to housing to health care, all of those things, we are in the posture right now as Democrats to take the corrective action that we need. And so we are together. You see us standing out on those steps today? We are unified, and that’s what it’s going to take. 

Republicans are a little bit disjointed on everything right now. As we said, we’re going to press on, and we’re going to be able to make the changes that we think we know people need. And the communities are going to be in support of it. They’ve shown that. They’ve shown they need a change. They see that the real change will come with Democrats. They’re going to continue to make sure that they get us back to where we need to go. Alma Adams is going to work hard. I’m going to continue to work on it. I’m going to stand up and speak up, cut up if I have to, but just make sure that what is due to our communities, they will get as they have gotten.