Speaker Greg Hughes Will Step Aside
Utah Speaker Greg Hughes (R-Draper) announced today that he will not seek re-election to his House seat in 2018. Hughes was elected to the House in 2002, and wasted no time taking bold steps to move the State in a more fiscally conservative direction, including advocating such measures as a taxpayer bill of rights. Hughes evangelized conservative principles throughout the State with the zeal of a barnstorming preacher, starting with a failed statewide campaign in favor of educational vouchers in 2007. Eventually, Hughes found a weekly radio platform where he partnered with Senator Howard Stephenson to advocate conservative principles on a show they called “Red Meat Radio.
Hughes displayed his now-familiar all-in approach when he decided to support candidate Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. Though he stood alone for a long time among Utah’s elected leaders in that decision, Hughes did not waiver—a point that President Trump highlighted in his recent trip to Utah.
Hughes attributes much of his determination to his impoverished upbringing in Pittsburgh, just him and a single mother facing long odds. He has seen difficulties, and he has survived them. The same can be said of political controversy. He has seen significant controversy, and he has survived it.
In strong contrast to his ability to stand strong and alone, Hughes is unusually charismatic and gregarious, even by political standards. Often in the middle of pitched political battles, Hughes could be found in the hallways of the Capitol laughing and jostling with his opponents.
Exhibiting both his aggression and his charm, Hughes has helped craft consensus in Utah’s efforts to combat homelessness, crime, and drug addiction, by partnering with Democratic leaders in the Salt Lake valley. Prior to bringing the State’s resources into the fight against homelessness, crime, and drugs, Hughes—in an unmistakable nod to his roots—worked with United Way and Goldman Sachs to prospectively fight the effects of poverty by instituting novel public/private strategies to expand public pre-school offerings for low-income families.
His penchant to go all-in on his bets leads political observers to believe that Hughes is not done with politics. Speculation quickly turned to the governor’s race in 2020. While Norm Bangerter successfully ran for Utah Governor in 1984 while Speaker of the House, the position seemed to saddle the gubernatorial campaign of Speaker Marty Stephens in 2004. Stepping out of the spotlight and the demands of the speakership would allow Hughes to campaign more aggressively for governor and to more freely criticize the direction of Governor Herbert and likely 2020 gubernatorial candidate Lieutenant Spencer Cox.