The Candidate: Who Is Carlos Adams?

The Paper Trail, Part 1 of 7

On the night of Oct. 7, Carlos Adams walked up to the microphone at Yuma City Council and told the city he was being hunted.

According to the City's video transcript, he said he had a message that "shows coordinated efforts to target and investigate me." He said someone had made him "an offer to improve my net worth." He said his citizenship, his business and his personal relationships were under scrutiny. "I believe this may be retaliation."

Then he told the mayor to step down.

He was right about one thing. Somebody was looking into him.

It was me.

This is what I found. Some of it's proven. Some of it isn't, yet. Some of it's my opinion, and I'll tell you when it is. But don't let anybody tell you there's nothing here. Most of it, Carlos Adams could clear up in one sentence. He won't.

The man who wants to run Yuma

This is who Adams says he is.

He told KAWC in June that he was born in San Diego, raised in Yuma, and went to McGraw Elementary and O.C. Johnson. KAWC's profile says he grew up working in his parents' Mexican crafts store at Southgate Mall. On the air, though, asked if he helped out at the store, he said no. He was playing Super Nintendo behind the counter. Boxer turned businessman. Father of three. He said he knocked on about 1,400 doors, sat through four months of council meetings, and decided City Hall was out of touch.

Notice what's missing. His parents' names. The store's name. Where he went to high school.

So I asked him about his parents. Politely. On Oct. 3, I pointed out that public records and reports about his age and family don't line up, and asked if he'd share a copy of his birth certificate with everything blacked out except his name, his date and place of birth, and his parents' names.

His answer:

"what is this? I'm feeling like Obama back in 2008 😅 . I'm just a private citizen"

A private citizen. Running for mayor.

And no, I wasn't asking where he was born. He says San Diego, and I've never said otherwise. I wanted two names off that certificate. I got a joke.

High school, too. He wouldn't say which one. So I dug it up myself, took it to him and asked him to confirm it. He wouldn't.

KAWC's radio host put his age at 33. On July 21, he ran for mayor as a write-in and got 1,348 votes, 13.6 percent. Mayor Douglas Nicholls got 7,335 and won outright.

Adams didn't take the hint. He came back in October swinging.

A business with three birthdays

Adams sells boxing shoes. Ask the paperwork when the business started and you get three different answers.

• July 21, 2014: "Adams Boxing" is registered in San Diego County. The newspaper notice says the business hasn't started.
• June 8, 2015: A Carlos Gil Adams applies to trademark AB ADAMSBOXING. He never files proof he's using it, and it's abandoned in October 2016.
• 2015: The year Adams told KAWC he founded the company.
• May 17, 2017: "Adams Footwear" is registered in San Diego County.
• 2020 and 2021: Three trademarks, V, V ADAMS and ADAMSFTWR, register to Carlos Gil Adams.

2014, 2015 or 2017? Pick one. Adams hasn't.

In my opinion, the trademark owner is the candidate. The names match, his campaign signature reads "Carlos G. Adams," and it's the same business. He could confirm it in a sentence. He hasn't.

Part 2 follows the shoes, all the way to factories in Pakistan.

The house

One more thing before we go.

In March 2000, a Yuma County deed put a house in the names of a Carlos G. Adams and his wife. Twenty years later, that same house turns up on Carlos Gil Adams's paperwork.

If Adams was 33 this June, he was in first grade when that deed was signed.

So who's the Carlos G. Adams on the deed? Hold that thought. Part 3 is about that house.

Where I come in

What I did, with dates:

• Oct. 4, morning: I emailed Mayor Nicholls a summary of my research on Adams: family, court and cross-border records. He didn't ask for it.
• Oct. 4, afternoon: I filed a tip about Adams with the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center.
• Oct. 5: The mayor thanked me and said he'd have to go through it. That's his whole reply.
• Oct. 6: I told the mayor I'd also sent leads to the FBI.

Nobody hired me. Nobody paid me. I did it because Adams's story didn't add up, and because every time I asked him a simple question about himself, I got a dodge, a wisecrack or a pile-on from his comment section instead of an answer.

So why would anybody take a Yuma write-in candidate to a counterterrorism center?

Because of what turned up when I started pulling his family's records. That's where this goes.

The scorecard

Verified

• 1,348 write-in votes. Nicholls won outright.
• Adams organized his committee on April 28, 2026.
• The 2014 and 2017 business filings and the four trademark filings.
• The 2000 deed to a Carlos G. Adams and his wife, and the same house on Adams's trademark paperwork.
• What Adams said on Oct. 7, as the City transcribed it.
• My emails to the mayor and his reply.
• My Oct. 3 birth-certificate question and Adams's "Obama" reply.

Not verified

• Who the Carlos G. Adams on the 2000 deed is.
• Who Adams's parents are.
• Any coordinated effort against him, and the "net worth" offer.
• Whether any agency acted on my tip.

My opinion

• The trademark owner is the candidate.
• Adams won't name his family because he doesn't want you looking at it.

Ask him yourself

I've asked Adams these. He dodged. You can ask him yourself, in public, on his campaign page or at any forum where he's taking questions. If he answers, I'll print it.

• Who are your parents?
• Where did you go to high school?
• When did Adams Boxing make its first sale?
• Who made you the "net worth" offer, and what was it?

Next: He sells boxing shoes. Follow the shipments. The Paper Trail Behind Carlos Adams's Boxing Shoes

Where this comes from

• City of Yuma, Oct. 7, 2026 Council meeting video and the City's transcript of it. Video. The transcript isn't certified.
• KAWC, candidate profile, June 8, 2026. Profile. Reporting.
• KOFA/KAWC, What's Up Yuma? Radio, June 2, 2026. Episode. Interview; the age is the station's. The store exchange comes from our computer transcript of the show, not checked by ear.
• City of Yuma, final primary results. Results. Official record.
• City of Yuma, Adams for Yuma Mayor statement of organization, April 28, 2026. PDF. Official record.
• San Diego County business-name index, 2014 and 2017. Search. Official index; originals not seen.
• USPTO status pages: AB ADAMSBOXING, V ADAMS, V, ADAMSFTWR. Official records.
• Yuma County Recorder, deed 2000-07040. Recorder. Official record, read from a copy in our archive.
• My emails with the mayor, kept in our files and quoted in Part 6.
• My Facebook screenshots, Oct. 2 and 3, 2026, in our research archive. Facebook showed only times like "21h," so the dates are when the screenshots were saved. They show what was posted; they don't independently prove who runs each account.
• Full details: source guide.