Harold Everett Hughes (February 10 1922 October 23 1996) was an American politician. He was a Democrat.

Hughes was born in Ida County, Iowa. He served as an army rifleman during World War II in Italy and North Africa. He then became a truck driver.

During the 1950s, Hughes began to enter politics. He was a member of the Iowa commerce commission from 1959 to 1963. He rose through the Democratic party ranks to become its candidate for governor of Iowa in 1962. Hughes won that election and served as governor from 1963 to 1968, being reelected in 1966. He opposed capital punishment and was active in governors' groups, chairing both the National and Democratic governors' conferences. He resigned in 1968 to run for the United States Senate. He was elected, and served for one term, from 1969 to 1975. He did not run for reelection. He briefly considered running for the Democratic nomination for the presidential election in 1972, but soon dropped out of that race.

After his retirement, Hughes served as a consultant to the Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee for a year. He then started the Harold Hughes foundation and opened the Harold Hughes Center to combat alcoholism. Hughes had also been interested in issues relating to alcoholism during his political career, as he had been battling that condition since his days as a truck driver. After some time in Iowa, he moved to a retirement community in Glendale, Arizona where he died.