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Stuart Hughes
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44th President of the United States
In office
January 20, 2013 – January 24, 2016
Vice President Selina Meyer
Preceded by POTUS 43
Succeeded by Selina Meyer
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office
March 2018
Nominated by Laura Montez
Preceeded by Tenny
Governor of Michigan
In office
before 2013
Personal details
Spouse Edna Hughes
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This article is part of a series about
Stuart Hughes
Presidency
2012 campaignInaugurationFiscal Responsibility BillUzbek hostage crisis2015 government shutdownImpeachment processResignation
Post-presidency
Stuart Hughes Presidential Library and MuseumSupreme Court nomination
Seal Of The President Of The United States Of America

Stuart Hughes is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2013 until his resignation in 2016. Following his term, he was nominated by President Laura Montez to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Prior to his presidency, Hughes served as the Governor of Michigan. During the 2012 presidential primaries, Hughes won the party's nomination and was elected to the presidency in the 2012 presidential election. Despite a steady first two years in office, Hughes' image began to falter in 2015 following the Uzbek hostage crisis, in which several American hostages were held against their will for months in Uzbekistan. It was later revealed that Hughes knew one of the hostages was an American spy. To divert attention away from this, Hughes shut down the government. Facing certain impeachment, Hughes announced he would not seek re-election in 2016. In December 2015, First Lady Edna Hughes attempted to take her own life. He resigned on January 24, 2016 to focus most of his attention on supporting the former first lady. Hughes became the second president to resign from office.

Hughes' presidential library opened in January 2018. Hughes' reputation among the general public likely improved upon his placement upon the Supreme Court.

Prior to presidency[]

Although Hughes served as Michigan governor, he may have been been born in or grew up in California, as his Presidential Library is located in Riverside.

Considering he is later nominated as a Supreme Court Justice, it can be assumed that Hughes has a history practicing law.

Governor of Michigan[]

As described in Selina's memoir A Woman First: First WomanHughes served as Governor of Michigan.

Hughes had a reputation of someone one would want to have a beer with, and had solid support of the "donor class" during his run for the presidency.

Selina described him as resembling a "fossil", and claimed one of the reasons she joined him on the ticket was that she would look better by comparison.

When it came to Hughes' wife Edna, the Hughes campaign would assert that she was an "extremely private person" and rarely made any appearances during her husbands term as Governor of Michigan other than the annual Governor's Easter Egg hunt, where Selina described Edna as having to "sober up" once a year for that occasion.

2012 presidential campaign[]

With the previous president unable to run for re-election again, Hughes announced he would run in the 2012 presidential election.

Edna Hughes' few campaign appearances allgedly ended with her being hustled off stage by her husband, leading to speculation that Hughes was a sexist.

Hughes was successful in the 2012 primaries. Months before the 2012 National Convention, Hughes approached Maryland Senator Selina Meyer, who also run in the primaries, about possibly being his running mate. This discussion was hostile. Hughes and Meyer would accept the party nomination at the convention, held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In the general election, Hughes relied heavily on his senior strategist, Kent Davison, who played an active role in making Selina seem more familial with her ex-husband Andrew Meyer. It was later revealed that Andrew Meyer's firm had funded both sides in the 2012 election.

The Hughes-Meyer ticket won the election on November 6.

President (2013–2016)[]

Main article: Presidency of Stuart Hughes

Stuart Hughes was inaugurated on January 20th 2013, with a public swearing-in held on January 21 because the 20th was a Sunday.

Despite initially promising Meyer an office inside the West Wing, he reneged on his promise and transferred Meyer across the street to the Eisenhower Building. Meyer and Hughes would maintain a tenuous relationship throughout the presidency, with Meyer feeling like Hughes is intentionally shutting her out of meetings such as a senatorial briefing on the Fiscal Responsibility Bill which Meyer had to run to the West Wing to attend since she wasn't invited. Meyer's signature Clean Jobs legislation was squandered by Hughes.

In September 2013, Hughes took a trip to South Africa, where he suffered heart issues, briefly allowing Vice President Selina Meyer to become acting president for a few hours.

Meyer's distance from Hughes seemed to hit a maxim when she found out he's golfing with political rival Governor Danny Chung and fears the president will replace her on the reelection ticket, fears that were confirmed by Andrew Doyle years later claiming that Hughes was seriously considering dropping Meyer from the ticket if he ran again in 2016.

According to A Woman First: First Woman, one of Hughes' achievements as president was welcoming the Pope to America.

SItuationRoom

President Hughes is one of the men in this photo, taken in the Situation Room during the Uzbek hostage crisis.

In the 2014 midterm elections, the party lost the House, putting Hughes' legislative agenda in a deep freeze. President Hughes' noticed that Meyer had a 0.9% lead over him campaign-wise; as a result, he gave her more authority in foreign policy, starting with a hostage crisis in Uzbekistan.

As the Uzbek hostage crisis unfolded, the hostages are returned safely. It is revealed that Hughes had knowledge that one of the hostages was a spy, endangering the lives of the other hostages who weren't spies.

After VP Selina Meyer and House Majority Leader Mary King make a deal that will prevent the government from shutting down, at the last minute Hughes stalls on the deal and the government shuts down as an act to draw attention away from the spy scandal. Meanwhile, there is news that a challenger will fight Hughes for the nomination in 2016 as he is growing more and more toxic within his own party, with key figures like Chung, Doyle, and Furlong turning against him. Impeachment talks grow as well due to the spy scandal, with the Senate and the House after Hughes. In June 2015, Hughes made it official he would not run for re-election in 2016.

In September 2015, Hughes reversed his position on abortion, prompting the candidates in the 2016 primaries, including Selina, to reflect on their own stances on the issue.

In December 2015, Edna Hughes attempted to take her own life by overdosing on sleeping pills, but the situation was kept from the public. After about a month of declining health, Hughes decided to devote more time to care for her. On January 24, 2016, Hughes resigned as president of the United States, with the first lady being admitted to a hospital. Vice President Selina Meyer took the oath of office and assumed the position as president.

Post-presidency[]

Following his resignation, Hughes took care of Edna. Two years later, Hughes' memoir fetched an advance of $20 million.

Stuart Hughes Presidential Library and Museum[]

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The Hughes Library.

Meyer attended the opening of the Stuart Hughes Presidential Library and Museum, which opened in January 2018 and is located in Riverside, California. They filmed this at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.

Tenure as Supreme Court Justice (2018–present)[]

On March 13, 2018, Hughes was nominated by President Laura Montez to replace Supreme Court Justice Tenny. In A Woman First: First Woman, it was confirmed that Hughes' confirmation went through.

At Selina Meyer's funeral in 2045, Hughes is not mentioned to have been there. Considering Meyer referenced Hughes' age in her biography, it is possible that Hughes died before Meyer.

Trivia[]

-His not appearing may be a reference to The Thick of It, a British show that is similar to Veep, also created by Armando Iannucci, where the Prime Minister remains unseen throughout the show's 4 seasons.

-In 2014, Armando Iannucci claimed that he would choose Arnold Schwarzenegger to play the then-unnamed POTUS.

-Ben claims that Hughes is a fan of the film "Full Metal Jacket".

-Selina claims that Hughes has never picked up a book in his life.

-Hughes is catholic, as revealed in A Woman First: First Woman.

-According to pictures from the Stuart Hughes Presidential Library, the Hughes' had a dog named Kissy Biscuits.

-Hughes is briefly seen in Hostages and in a photo in The Vic Allen Dinner, in the situation room surveying the Uzbek Hostage Crisis. He is noted by Selina and Kent to look "jowly". In the DVD commentary for the episode, the crew joked that Hughes probably would never appear again because they don't know the names of the extras in the scene.

-The original storyline for the Veep finale was that, instead of Tom Hanks dying, it was going to be Hughes dying, overshadowing Selina one last time. David Mandel also claimed in an interview that Tom Hanks would have been his choice to portray Hughes, and that he would have made a photographic appearance in the Library episode.

See also[]

Offices and distinctions[]

Party political offices
Preceded by
Eventually Blake Stewart (2004)
Party nominee for President of the United States
2012
Succeeded by
Selina Meyer
Political offices
Preceded by
Unknown
Governor of Michigan Succeeded by
Unknown
Preceded by
POTUS 43
President of the United States
2013–2016
Succeeded by
Selina Meyer
Legal offices
Preceded by
Justice Tenny
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
2018–present
Incumbent
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