Jeffrey Hughes, Sr., is a perfect example of a political candidate who doesn’t need a high school diploma or past political experience to run for office.

The search for a replacement for 16-year incumbent Gov. Terry Branstad will be held this November, and Hughes, a member of the Reform Party of Iowa, is focusing his gubernatorial campaign on the individual rights of citizens.

“We must restore the rights granted by the constitution, or face losing them forever, for ourselves and for the generations to come,” Hughes stated on his Web site.

His first goal, according to the site, is to restore the rights of individuals and to restore the rights to govern Iowa as the public sees fit.

Hughes also said he is running for governor because he wants to be heard. He emphasized that he is not afraid to speak out for the restoration of constitutional rights.

“Constitutional violations at the federal level are destroying our rights as individuals and as state legislators,” he said. “I have never been, am not now, and hope never to be a politician. I am a working man who has gotten tired of, frustrated by and overlooked by the ‘powers that be.'”

Although Hughes said he had given thought to running for a lower ranked office, he decided against it, saying, “If a person is anything less than governor, he or she has to take orders from someone higher.”

Hughes said the federal government has violated the Constitution in many ways.

“I thought I was working for my family, only to come to the realization that I was working for Russia, Mexico, North Korea, Communist China, chocolate-covered naked ladies dancing on a stage, pornographers peddling their pictures in museums and unspecified one-celled creatures living in my creek bed,” he stated in a press release.

In his book, “AMERICA IN TRIAGE — One Man’s Cures to America’s Ills — Returning America to the People,” Hughes discusses his views on the topics ‘plaguing’ America and creating strife, separatism, conflict and costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

Hughes does not have a high school diploma, but he said he stopped short of graduating high school for personal reasons. He said education is not so much what a student learns from books; instead, he said, learning is found in the quality of the education.

Despite his lack of formal schooling, Hughes said, he did finish in the 83rd percentile on the SAT test in his junior year of high school.

Currently, Hughes is a service/journeyman at Mid-American Energy Co. and has been a member with the Local 109 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union for 25 years.

The Hughes family resides on a 46-acre farm in Davenport. In August, Hughes and his wife, Roxanne, will be celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. Hughes is the father of four children and also has three grandchildren.