Suzanne Haik Terrell (born July 8, 1954) is the first and only Republican woman elected to statewide office in
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...
. A practicing attorney, Terrell was the state's final commissioner of elections, a position which she held from 2000 to 2004. In 2002, she was the Republican nominee for United States Senate, losing a hotly contested and closely watched race against incumbent Senator
Mary Landrieu
Mary Loretta Landrieu ( ; born November 23, 1955) is an American entrepreneur and politician who served as a United States senator from Louisiana from 1997 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Landrieu served as the Louisiana State Treasur ...
United States Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for busi ...
's
Economic Development Administration
The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides grants and technical assistance to economically distressed communities in order to generate new employment, help retain exist ...
. Terrell is currently a partner with the New Orleans law firm of Hangartner, Rydberg, and Terrell.
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
degree from the Newcomb College of
Tulane University
Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pu ...
. In 1984, she received her
Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...
degree from the
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law is a private law school in New Orleans, Louisiana affiliated with Loyola University New Orleans. Loyola's law school opened in 1914 and is now located on the Broadway Campus of the university in the hi ...
. While at Loyola, Terrell served on the editorial board of the ''Loyola Law Review''.
Political career
From 1994 to 2000, Terrell was a Republican member of the
New Orleans City Council
The New Orleans City Council is the legislative branch of the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The current mayor-council form of city government was created in 1954, following the 1950 amendment of the state constitution that provide ...
. She won her first term on March 5, 1994, when she defeated the Democrat Mary Jane Fenner in District A, 20,007 (52.4 percent) to 18,152 (47.6 percent). The seat was vacated by Republican Peggy Wilson, who was instead elected to one of the two at-large council seats. Suzanne Haik Terrell also performed censorship on public access shows mainly the Chris Sak show . Terrell ran without opposition to her council seat in 1998 and stepped down midway in her term after election in November 1999 as Louisiana elections commissioner.
In the race for elections commissioner, she defeated in the
general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
or
runoff
Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to:
* RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program
* Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed
* Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sport ...
owner from suburban
Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of countie ...
. In Louisiana's first runoff with two Republicans, Terrell polled 437,817 votes (59 percent) to Jenkins' 302,261 (41 percent). Jenkins had led in the
nonpartisan blanket primary
A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of the political party. Partisan elections are, on the other hand, segregated by political party. ...
Jerry Fowler
Jerry Alvin Fowler (June 20, 1927 – June 15, 2008) was a professional basketball player who spent one season in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Milwaukee Hawks during the 1951–52 season. He also played with the K ...
of Natchitoches, engulfed in scandal, ran third and was eliminated from the contest. In 1996, Jenkins had opposed Terrell's later Senate opponent,
Mary Landrieu
Mary Loretta Landrieu ( ; born November 23, 1955) is an American entrepreneur and politician who served as a United States senator from Louisiana from 1997 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Landrieu served as the Louisiana State Treasur ...
, but he lost by about four thousand disputed votes.
As elections commissioner, Terrell streamlined department operations and advocated the merging of her office with the secretary of state, who already oversaw some elections operations. While in office Terrell's department won national recognition for its voting and registration systems. She was successful in abolishing her office as her term ended in 2004. No other Louisiana politician has abolished their current, occupied office.
2002 Senate election
Terrell challenged freshman Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu's bid for reelection. Terrell finished second in the first-round vote, beating two other Republicans, Congressman John Cooksey and State Rep. Tony Perkins. Landrieu finished first but fell short of a majority.
Since the runoff would not happen until December, the Landrieu-Terrell matchup was the last Senate race decided that year. Terrell's campaign attracted national attention, including visits from President George W. Bush and his father, George Herbert Walker Bush, and Vice President
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former ...
. Terrell had been co-chairman of the Bush campaign in Louisiana and was a member of the National Finance Committee. She was an elector for the Bush-Cheney slate in 2000. The national party had taken an interest in Terrell's campaign because it could have made the difference in their chances at retaking the Senate. (As it happened, the GOP would take back the Senate even before the Louisiana race had been decided.)
Landrieu was re-elected largely on the basis of her 79,000-vote plurality in
Charles C. Foti, Jr., 54 to 46 percent. Foti had been backed by the Landrieu family.
In 2005, President Bush appointed Terrell to a post at the United States Department of Commerce following Hurricane Katrina. In her position, Terrell was actively involved in economic development initiatives in the Gulf Region.
Personal life
Married since 1976 to Walter Lee Terrell, an ophthalmologist, Terrell has three daughters who were featured in an ad for her 2002 Senate campaign.
Dr. Terrell, a native of Baton Rouge, graduated from Tulane University as the first person to graduate with a perfect academic record in Chemical Engineering, he went on to Tulane Medical School and trained in ophthalmology at LSU. He has been in private practice in New Orleans since finishing his residency.
The Terrell's oldest daughter, Julie Terrell Radford, is married to Wynn Radford. The couple live in Washington D.C. where Julie works for the White House and Wynn is with BPAmerica. Elizabeth (aka Bebe) Terrell Goodrich lives in Birmingham Alabama with her husband Thomas Goodrich. Together Bebe and Thomas developed Ice Box coffee, a successful cold brewed coffee company that was purchased by Birmingham-based Royal Cup in 2017. Christine (aka Chrissy) Terrell Murray also lives in Washington D.C. where she is Director of Corporate Communications for Gannet Corporation. Chrissy is married to Drew Murray, an executive with MGroup.
Her brother, Dr. Barrett George Haik (1951-2016) was the director of the Hamilton Eye Center in Memphis, Tennessee. Another brother, Dr. George M. Haik, Jr. (c. 1949-2021), was an ophthalmology at the George M. Haik Eye Clinic in New Orleans. Her surviving brother, Dr. Kenneth Haik (wife Diana), practices medicine in New Orleans.