Theodore Michael Haik Jr., known as Ted Haik (born April 8, 1945), is an attorney in

New Iberia New Iberia (; ) is the largest city in and the parish seat of Iberia Parish, Louisiana, Iberia Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The city of New Iberia is located approximately southeast of Lafayette, Louisiana, Lafayette, and forms part of ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, who was a Democratic member of the

Louisiana House of Representatives The Louisiana House of Representatives (; ) is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. This chamber is composed of 105 representatives, each of whom represents approximately 4 ...

from 1976 to 1996. He represented House District 49, which includes portions of

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

St. Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

, and

Vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color family and pigment most often used between antiquity and the 19th century from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide). It is synonymous with red orange, which often takes a moder ...

parishes. He is the older brother of

U.S. District Judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district. Each district cov ...

Richard T. Haik of Lafayette and

Suzanne Haik Terrell Suzanne Haik Terrell (born July 8, 1954) was the first Republican woman elected to statewide office in Louisiana. A practicing attorney, Terrell was the state's final commissioner of elections, a position which she held from 2000 to 2004. In 20 ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, the last Louisiana elections commissioner who served from 2000 to 2004 and the unsuccessful Republican candidate in the 2002

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

race against the incumbent Democrat

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 Treasu ...

Background

Of Lebanese descent, Haik was born in New Iberia to Theodore Haik, Sr., and the former Margaret Hannie, both deceased. He graduated from the

University of Louisiana at Lafayette The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette, University of Louisiana, ULL, or UL) is a Public university, public research university in Lafayette, Louisiana, United States. It has the largest enrollment within the nine-campus Universi ...

and holds the

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

degree from the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

-affiliated

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 ...

. He is a former

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

in the

Louisiana Army National Guard The Louisiana Army National Guard (; ) is a component of the Louisiana National Guard, and the state's reserve force within the United States Army. The Constitution of the United States specifically charges the National Guard with dual federal ...

. He is a graduate too of the military law course at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

Political career

Haik was first elected in 1975, when Louisiana established the still-used

nonpartisan blanket primary A nonpartisan primary, top-two primary, or jungle primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of political party. This distinguishes them from partisan primaries, w ...

. He won a third term in 1983 over fellow Democrat Kenneth "Kenu" Reeves, 11,107 (62.2 percent) to 6,760 (37.8 percent). Haik won his fifth and final term in 1991, when he again handily defeated another Democrat, James "Jimmy" Romero, 10,444 (67.4 percent) to 5,050 (32.6 percent). As a legislator, Haik was chairman of the House Insurance and Capital Outlay committees and the Subcommittee on the Environment. He was a member of the Judiciary and the Civil Law and Procedure committees. He received eight awards from civic groups for his legislative service. After retiring from the state House, Haik became under Republican

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Murphy J. Foster Jr., the first chairman of the Louisiana Property and Casualty Commission, an advisory body consisting of legislators, the Louisiana Department of Insurance, and consumer groups. The current city attorney in New Iberia, Haik is a former president of the Iberia Parish Bar Association.

Personal life

In 1982, Haik joined three business partners in the purchase for $12.4 million of the

Evangeline Downs Evangeline Downs Racetrack & Casino is a racetrack in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, just east of Opelousas. It is owned and operated by Boyd Gaming. With a one-mile oval track, the facility provides close to 1,000 horse stalls for Thoroughbred ...

racetrack in Lafayette. He is a member of the pastoral council of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Two of Haik's four children, Theodore "Trey" III (born 1972), and Eric Timothy Haik (born 1976), practice law with him in the New Iberia firm Haik, Minvielle, & Grubbs. Haik and his wife, the former Carol Redmond, have two other children as well. Haik's areas of practice include negligence claims, insurance law, criminal defense, corporate law, hospital third-party collections, and

Medicaid Medicaid is a government program in the United States that provides health insurance for adults and children with limited income and resources. The program is partially funded and primarily managed by U.S. state, state governments, which also h ...

reimbursement. Some 60 percent of his casework is devoted to litigation. Trey Haik was narrowly elected as New Iberia city judge in the

runoff election The two-round system (TRS or 2RS), sometimes called ballotage, top-two runoff, or two-round plurality, is a single-winner electoral system which aims to elect a member who has support of the majority of voters. The two-round system involves one ...

held on December 6, 2014. He polled 51.3 percent of the vote against a fellow Republican, Edward Landry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haik, Ted 1945 births Living people People from New Iberia, Louisiana Democratic Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives Louisiana lawyers United States Army officers University of Louisiana at Lafayette alumni Loyola University New Orleans College of Law alumni American politicians of Lebanese descent Catholics from Louisiana 20th-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature