Charles Andrew Hales (born January 22, 1956) is a former American politician who served as the 52nd mayor of Portland, Oregon, from 2013 to 2017. He previously served on the Portland City Council from 1993 to 2002.

Charles Andrew Hales was born in Washington, D.C., in January 1956. His father, Alfred Ross Hales, Jr., was a structural engineer for the United States Navy and his mother, Carol Hales, was a homemaker. He had two older siblings but, at nine years younger than his brother, grew up "virtually as an only child."

Hales attended public schools in Alexandria, Virginia, and graduated from Thomas Edison High School in Fairfax County, where he participated in band and drama club. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in political theory. He took graduate studies in public administration at Lewis & Clark College in Portland.

Prior to being elected, Hales worked as a lobbyist, working for the Oregon Mobile Home Park Association and for the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland, where he was the vice president.

Hales was elected to Portland City Council in 1992. He was sworn in as a City Commissioner in January 1993.

During his tenure on the city council, Hales conceived of and won voter approval for the first parks bond measure in over 50 years, funding construction of two new community centers and over 100 park improvement projects across the city. Hales completed the first phase of the Portland Streetcar system, the first urban streetcar in the US in almost 50 years. He also completed the planning of the Pearl District and South Waterfront redevelopment areas, which were designed as dense, transit-oriented "new urban" neighborhoods. Hales' advocacy for transportation — summed up in his stated goal to make Portland "the best European city in America" for non-auto transportation — earned him the nickname, "Choo-Choo Charlie".

One of Hales' more controversial initiatives as a city commissioner was diversifying Portland Fire Bureau workforce. He hired the first chief from outside the Bureau ranks, and created an apprenticeship program that added over 80 women and people of color to what had previously been a 99-percent white, male organization. He also became the only Portland politician to vote against Joint Terrorism Task Force involvement.

Hales' attendance declined in 2001 during his campaign for the executive director position of the Port of Portland. At the end of May 2002, part way through his third term, Hales left to take a position with HDR, Inc., an engineering firm, where he managed planning and design of new streetcar lines in cities across the country. Following his departure from City Council, Hales told Willamette Week that he considered the 1994 parks bond measure and the streetcar to be his greatest achievements while in office.