Editor’s note: The Easton Courier asked candidates running for office representing Easton to submit a bio and platform statement. Anne Hughes (D) is running for re-election for Connecticut’s 135th House District.
Anne Hughes is serving her third term in the Connecticut General Assembly, proudly representing the 135th House District, which serves Easton, Weston, and Redding. She serves as Assistant Majority Leader for the House of Representatives and is a member of the Aging Committee, the Labor and Public Employees Committee, and the Human Services Committee.
Hughes also co-chairs the Complex Care Committee of the standing Medical Assistance Program Oversight Council, (MAPOC) and serves as an appointed member of the Environmental Standards Commission on Offshore Wind since 2019.
Hughes lives in Easton with her husband, Tim, and works as a Licensed Master Social Worker in elder services. She has been serving on Easton’s Commission on Aging since 2018. She was born and raised in Fairfield, one of five daughters of Fairfield public school teachers. She graduated Cum Laude from the College of New Rochelle and earned her Master of Social Work degree at the University of New England.
Hughes teaches at the Campaign Academy for Electing Social Workers. She enjoys making art, singing bluegrass, band jamming with her husband and musician friends, and engaging the next generation of change makers, sharing her passion for public service. She can be found @repannehughes on Instagram.
Candidate Statement
I am so grateful to serve as your elected State Representative since 2018. We’ve been through a lot these past six years: We passed historic legislation like Paid Family Medical Leave, raising the minimum wage, and passed Connecticut’s two-year budget three times, balanced and on time. This built critical momentum toward paying down our debt liability and attracting A+ bond ratings while delivering historic tax cuts, including phasing out taxes on retirement and social security income for Easton retirees.
Families have been drawn to Easton, and now neighbors welcoming new babies, recovering from surgery, or caring for loved ones with serious illness can take time off without losing income. We passed Early Voting. We’re bringing you the referendum on No-excuse Absentee Ballot voting (vote “YES” in this election). We strengthened gun safety and storage laws. Anticipating the Dobbs decision, we passed Connecticut’s Reproductive Freedom Defense Act, protecting your privacy, abortion access, IVF, and protecting providers from criminal prosecution.
Like so many of you, I can’t believe we’re still fighting to protect the hard-won rights our grandmothers and mothers marched and rallied for.
When the pandemic hit, and with recent catastrophic flooding, I mobilized to bring updates about resources and services from our state and federal partners. We make a good team.
I welcomed the governor’s team to celebrate Easton, our local farms, and to protect Fairfield County’s water supply. We even got the Lt. governor’s support to declare Easton the Christmas Tree Capital of Connecticut. During my tenure, Easton received $3,941,695 in State aid, and $1,54,021 in Bond Allocations, protecting our town’s people, environment, farms, and watershed. Yet we still must address the rising cost of health care for our Easton community: Connecticut has some of the highest insurance premiums in the nation, unaffordable for families and employers.
Consolidation of healthcare providers and skyrocketing prescription drug prices compound this challenge. We must stand up to powerful lobbies and corporate profiteers to make Connecticut affordable for everyone. I’ve taken on these fights and joined coalitions to work together toward transformative healthcare and affordability through systems-wide change, like capping the cost of insulin at $25 per month and diabetes-related supplies at $100. This past session, we increased oversight of and enhanced services for long-term and home-based eldercare. Let’s keep the momentum going.
We’ve seen good government in action: we extended universal school meals during the pandemic, along with a child tax credit and pandemic relief for essential workers. I’m proud of these policy wins, but there’s much more to tackle ahead. Our democracy is fragile. I’m endorsed by 18 major organizations — from firefighters and teachers, nurses, healthcare workers, building trades, conservation and gun violence prevention groups — not because of promises, but because of my record of championing these issues into policy successes.
I ask for your vote by Nov. 5. Exercise your hard-won right to vote early. Let’s vote in every election. I love being your Easton neighbor and serving you as your state representative. You have my number.
Anne Hughes
https://www.hughesforrep.com/
