Meet the candidates: Greg Hughes

Greg Hughes was born in Pittsburgh, Penn., in 1970. He has been married to his wife, Krista, for 25 years. They have three children (Sophie, Holden and Reagan) and reside in Draper, Utah.

Hughes attended Utah Valley State College and Brigham Young University. His professional experience includes working as a property manager and a construction manager.

He served in the Utah House from 2003 to 2018, representing Draper in District 51 in Salt Lake County. He was the House speaker from 2015 to 2018. 

The candidate announced his candidacy for governor in January 2020.  In April, he named Washington County Commissioner Victor Iverson as his running mate.

The Republican was an early supporter of President Donald Trump.

Hughes served on the board of the Utah Transit Authority. While serving as UTA chairman, Hughes formed a business relationship with developer and former House Majority Leader Kevin Garn in 2011 to construct an apartment building on land Hughes owned in downtown Salt Lake City. 

Hughes did not disclose a business relationship with Garn but said a disclosure wasn’t required.

If the Hughes-Garn company “had moved forward and was actually a business enterprise, I would disclose it,” Hughes said in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune at the time.

According to his campaign, the Republican “stood strong to defeat multiple attempts to expand Obamacare in Utah.” He worked to thwart Gov. Gary Herbert’s expansion of Medicaid in 2015.

Hughes is also a gun owner and defender of the Second Amendment.

On his campaign website, he says, “We must fight against any and all attempts to infringe upon our right to keep and bear arms.” [1] 

In 2017, the former speaker launched Operation Rio Grande in downtown Salt Lake City to combat homelessness and crime, and set up an office at ground zero.

Find out more about candidate Hughes here.