Shelley Hughes (born January 6, 1958, in Canton,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

) is an American politician and a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

member of the

Alaska Senate The Alaska State Senate is the upper house in the Alaska Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. It convenes in the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, Alaska and is responsible for making laws and confirming or rejecting gub ...

, serving since 2017. Hughes was previously a member of the

Alaska House of Representatives The Alaska State House of Representatives is the lower house in the Alaska Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. The House is composed of 40 members, each of whom represents a district of approximately 17,756 people per ...

from January 18, 2013, until January 22, 2017, representing District F.

Career

Hughes has an AA from

Cuyahoga Community College Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) is a public community college in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Founded in 1963, it is the oldest and largest public community college within the state. Tri-C schedules on the semester basis, and offers over 1,000 co ...

and a BA from the

University of Alaska The University of Alaska System is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Alaska. It was created in 1917 and comprises three separately accredited universities on 19 campuses. The system serves nearly 30,000 full- and part-time stud ...

Alaska House of Representatives

Hughes was elected to the

in 2012, beating Daniel Hamm in the primary.

Alaska Senate

Hughes was first elected to the Alaska Senate in its 2016 election. In 2021, she was chosen to be the majority leader of the Alaska Senate.

Health care

In September 2021, Hughes was part of a panel of Alaska legislators focused on health care. Hughes argued that Alaska was "the highest cost location on the globe" for the cost of drug and medical treatment, and said she was looking at

pharmacy benefit management In the United States, a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) is a third-party administrator of prescription drug programs for commercial health plans, self-insured employer plans, Medicare Part D plans, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, ...

and increased price transparency as ways to keep costs down.

Transgender athletes

In May 2021, Hughes introduced a bill into the Alaska Senate that would ban transgender women and girls from playing in women's sports. The bill required that public schools, or private schools with teams that compete against public schools, have gender-segregated sporting teams and that any participant on the girls' team "must be female, based on the participant's biological sex." Because the bill was introduced in the final few weeks of the legislative session, Hughes announced that she would push for it in the next legislative session instead.

Personal life

Hughes' husband, Roger, is a veteran of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. She has four children.

Electoral history

2020

2016

2014

2012

References

1958 births 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Living people Republican Party Alaska state senators Republican Party members of the Alaska House of Representatives Politicians from Canton, Ohio People from Palmer, Alaska University of Alaska Anchorage alumni Women state legislators in Alaska {{Alaska-politician-stub