Samuel Francis Adams (3 September 1963-) was the Democratic Mayor of Portland, Oregon from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2012, succeeding Tom Potter and preceding Charlie Hales.
Biography[]
Samuel Francis Adams was born to an Irish-American family in Butte, Montana in 1963, and he was raised in Whitehall, Montana; Richland, Washington; and Newport and Eugene, Oregon. He worked as a restaurant cook from a young age to provide for himself during his working-class upbringing, and he worked as an assistant to congressman Peter DeFazio before being elected Chair of the Lane County Democratic Party in 1988 and serving as Mayor Vera Katz's chief of staff for eleven years, coming out as gay in 1993. He became an advocate for the arts, sustainability, and gay rights, and he served as Mayor of Portland from 2009 to 2012. Adams prioritized creating more family-wage jobs, reducing the high school dropout rate, and making Portland more sustainable, and he also banned single-use plastic bags and established curbside composting. After leaving office, he worked in environmental advocacy groups in Washington DC, and he returned to Portland in 2020, failing to be re-elected to the city council, but serving as director of strategic innovations for Mayor Ted Wheeler.