Gov. Kathy Hochul’s selection of former City Council Speaker and unsuccessful mayoral candidate Adrienne Adams balances out her upstate roots.

It’s already looking like a different relationship between Hochul and her current No. 2, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado.

The pair make the first all-female ticket and if successful, Adams would become New York’s first Black female lieutenant governor.

“The only person that could have pulled me back into politics when I waved goodbye so happily, figured my work was done, was Gov. Kathy Hochul,” said Adams in a sitdown interview with NY1.

Adams had plans to relax with her grandkids, but after the new year, she said she got a call she couldn’t ignore.

“I happily said goodbye to City Hall on Dec. 31, 2025, did my happy dance, wished everybody well, was looking to take some time off and go back into the private sector. The room changed,” she said.

“Then the governor said to me: the media gets this wrong a lot, I have not asked a whole lot of people for this and that and to run with me and she said: ‘Adrienne, will you be my running mate?'” Adams described the conversation with Hochul to NY1.

The choice benefits Hochul, who not only needs strong downstate turnout but intimate knowledge of the dynamic between City Hall and the City Council.

“I speak to my experience. People are very excited. Believe it or not, people actually do know a lot of the work that I’ve already done and are impressed,” she said.

Already drafted into attack mode, Adams had harsh words for Republicans during a recent stop in Nassau County ahead of President Donald Trump’s rally for GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman.

“We have a president that made a lot of promises, where when it came to the economy and those promises have fallen,” said Adams.

But the pair don’t always see eye to eye. Adams represented and lives in the largely car-dependent, transit desert Southeast Queens.

She was critical of Hochul’s congestion pricing plan:

“I don’t know if I agree with it, to be quite honest with you. I come from Queens and I know what my constituents feel and they are feeling the pressure of the possibility of congestion pricing,” she told NY1 in 2024.

Adams is also for a universal basic income plan.

“There is a need for guaranteed basic income. I don’t know if you remember the pilot that I began as speaker of the City Council that dealt with bringing a stipend to unwed mothers. I would love to expand that. We can prevent homelessness before it ever begins,” she said.

Her campaign did not specifically address whether Hochul approves of the plan.

“Gov. Hochul is thrilled to have an experienced leader like Speaker Adams on the ticket and looks forward to discussing a broad range of ideas with her after victory in November,” said Sarafina Chikita, a Hochul spokeswoman.

When it comes to taxing the rich, the candidate appeared to leave the door open. The topic has become a political thorn for Hochul, under pressure from Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

“All sides should be considered. I do believe in everyone paying their fair share. There is, of course, conversation over what that fair share is and what it looks like, so it still, in my opinion, requires more discussion and more consideration all the way around,” said Adams.

She was also a key champion of the city’s expensive homelessness voucher program — that pricetag growth was previously slammed by Hochul during the state budget process.

“As far as taking responsibility, the City Council did a great thing in protecting the right to housing for New Yorkers. I stand with that,” said Adams.

This summer, she’s campaigning upstate.

“People do not want to leave the places that they were raised, the places that they were born. They want to stay,” Adams said, explaining that concerns about the economy ranks among the top issues for voters.

“The governor has put a whole lot of investment into upstate counties. Micron is one of them,” she said.

But, does she have a favorite stop?

“My last surviving aunt, my dad’s sister, lives upstate in Athens,” said Adams. “That area by Catskill is my favorite — but again, I don’t have a favorite!”

“We have the same issues, the same concerns and the same needs from downstate to upstate. Just we’re different geographically, demographically,” she added.