Karen Parfitt Hughes (born December 27, 1956 in Paris, France) is a Republican U.S. political professional from the state of Texas.

Hughes received her bachelor's degree from Southern Methodist University in 1977. She worked as a television news reporter from 1977 to 1984. As a reporter, Hughes followed the presidential campaign in 1980. In 1984, she switched from covering politics to practicing politics, going to work as the Texas press coordinator for the Reagan-Bush campaign.

Since the 1990s, Hughes has worked with George W. Bush: first as director of communications while he was governor of Texas, from 1995 to 2000, and then as special advisor to the president from 2001 to 2002, while he was president of the United States. She left the Bush administration in July 2002 to return to Texas, but remained in daily contact with the Bush reelection campaign by telephone and e-mail, and spoke personally with Bush several times a week. In August 2004, Hughes returned to full-time service with the Bush campaign, setting up office on Air Force One, from where she planned the 2004 Republican National Convention and the late stages of the 2004 election. She has been described by the Dallas Morning News as "the most powerful woman ever to serve in the White House", and by ABC News as Bush's "most essential advisor," and remains one of the major voices of the Bush campaign.

In March 2004, Hughes published Ten Minutes from Normal, an upbeat account of her work in the Bush administration.

On March 14, 2005, she was officially nominated for the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy with the rank of ambassador — a job focused on changing foreigners' perceptions about America. Senate confirmation is still pending as of March 2005. [1]