Hayes attended Hunter College High School in New York City and Brown University for his undergraduate education. At Brown, Hayes received a B.A. in Philosophy. Previously, Hayes was Adjunct Professor of English at St. Augustine College in Chicago.

From 2006 through 2007, Hayes was a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at the Nation Institute, and a Contributing Writer for The Nation. On November 1, 2007, The Nation named him as its Washington, D.C. Editor, succeeding David Corn. He is also currently a Senior Editor at In These Times, a liberal monthly magazine based in Chicago. He has written extensively on issues central to the liberal community, including what ails the Democratic Party in the post-9/11 era, and how the labor movement is changing. Hayes is also a regular contributor to the Chicago Reader, an independent weekly newspaper, where he covers local and national politics.

He guest-hosted The Rachel Maddow Show in July 2010, while Maddow was traveling in Afghanistan; Hayes often fills in for Maddow when she is absent. In June 2010, Hayes also hosted The Ed Show on MSNBC.

Hayes married Kate A. Shaw (Associate Counsel for President Barack Obama) on July 14, 2007, in a Chicago ceremony officiated by Judge Richard A. Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The couple reside in Washington, D.C.