Kirsten Hughes declared her candidacy for chairwoman of the Massachusetts Republican Party a day after the current chairman announced he would not seek reelection next month.

Hughes told state committee members of her plans in a letter released today. A former political field director for the MassGOP who ran the party’s state convention in 2010, Hughes is a Quincy city councilor who was elected last year in a district with only 10 percent Republicans, she wrote.