Kirsten Hughes

Kirsten L. Hughes is an American political figure, singer, and attorney who is the Chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party and a member of the Quincy, Massachusetts City Council.

Hughes was born and raised in Quincy. She began her political involvement at the age of twelve as a volunteer for William Weld's gubernatorial campaign. She graduated from Notre Dame Academy in 1995.

Hughes earned a degree in theater arts from New York University. For over eighteen years, she worked as a singing waitress at West Quincy’s Common Market Café. She also sang professionally in New York City, participated in community musicals, performed around Boston with a cover band called Velvet Krush, and played Ariel for a year in the Walt Disney World show Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

Hughes earned a law degree from New England School of Law. She was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 2008 and worked for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.

Hughes was a political field director for the Massachusetts Republican Party and ran the party’s state convention in 2010. She then served as deputy finance director for Scott Brown's 2012 Senate campaign. In this role she helped Brown raise $42 million.

In 2011, Hughes was elected to the Quincy City Council in Ward 5. She defeated Neil McCole 1,804 votes to 1,288.

On December 6, 2012, Hughes declared her candidacy for Chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party. She faced Richard Green, a state committeeman, businessman, and founder of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. Hughes was seen as the establishment candidate while Green was seen as anti-establishment.

On January 31, 2013, Hughes was elected Chair by a vote of 41 to 39. She was elected on the second ballot, as the result of the first ballot was contested and then set aside.

Hughes married Philip Doherty, a software engineer, in 2010. The couple had a son in 2012.