In 1902, he ran for congress as a Democrat against wealthy and well-connected linen tycoon William Barbour, who owned the very factory that Billy had worked in as a “bobbin boy” decades earlier.

With New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson’s endorsement, Hughes ran for the United States Senate in 1912, and as a result of his victory became the first union card-carrying member of that body.

American Federation of Labor President Samuel Gompers declared Hughes’s death “an irreparable loss to the councils of labor,” while President Wilson lamented “I have lost a friend for whom I had the deepest affection and a very genuine admiration.” More than 5,000 workers from Paterson and surrounding towns attended the funeral of “Our Billy,” bearing the brutally cold February weather to pay their respects.

Nearly a decade later, union workers and labor organizations from Paterson and around the country funded the construction of a monument honoring the life and legacy of Billy Hughes.

Designed by celebrated Italian-American sculptor Gaetano Federici, it stands in front of the Passaic County Courthouse to this day as a testament to his personal achievements and public service.