[7] While attending Yale, he was given a weekly column in the Arizona Daily Star, which was owned by his father.

He resigned from that position in 1907, when his father sold the paper to W. B. Kelly, the former editor of the Bisbee Daily Review.

[20] Hughes declared his intent to see the Democrat's nomination for state senator from Pima County in September 1911.

[28] He was very well-respected in the legislature, being considered a fine orator, but he was not a physically strong individual, suffering from several maladies over the years, including rheumatism and "affliction of the eyes".

One was the Municipal Abattoir Bill, which after a hard fight in the senate, passed the house without a dissenting vote.

As originally written, the state attorney general said that it advocated the confiscation of private property (the slaughterhouses), so the act was amended to make participation voluntary.

[35][36] He also successfully championed a bill which deeded state lands to the Desert Botanical Laboratory.

The land deeded was being leased by the laboratory, but in order to build on it, they needed clear title.

At the time there were four people who were running for the two Democrat nominations, besides Hughes there was Andrew P. Martin, Mose Drachman, and R. N. Leatherwood.

[49] His real estate interests were not confined to Arizona, as in January 1905 he joined a group of 3 other investors to develop property in Oceanside, California.

[53] Their property was located sixty-fives southwest of Tucson, and consisted of twenty-four claims, which produced gold, silver, and molybdenum.

[56] While running for the senate in 1916, Hughes was the lead defense attorney in the murder trial of three Pima County Deputies: Joe Wiley, Thomas Jones, and Ramon Salazar.

[59] Following his departure from the state senate, Hughes resumed his legal career, as well as looking after several business interests.

Although he did win a decision from the state supreme court to grant his clients bail while they awaited trial.

[61] In 1918 Governor Hunt appointed Hughes to serve as a regent for the University of Arizona,[62] and in September of that year, he was elected to be chancellor of the school.

[64] He had been ill for several years, but continued to practice law right up till a few days before his death on November 14, 1921.

Several groups, including the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, and the Pioneers Society had both sought to obtain the set, but Mrs. Hughes felt that preservation was best served by donating it to the university.