{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Michael Paul "Mike Pete" Huval
| image=Mike Pete Huval of LA.jpg|office=[[Louisiana]] State Representative for District 46 (Iberia, St. Landry, <br> and St. Martin parishes)
| party=[[Democratic Party|Democratic]]-turned-[[Republican Party|Republican]]
| term_start=April 2011
| term_end=January 2024| preceded=[[Fred Mills]] | succeeded=Chad M. Boyer (unopposed)| office2=District 4 member of the <br> St. Martin Parish Council
| term_start2=1996
| term_end2=2011
| birth_date=February 1, 1956
| birth_place=St. Martin Parish, Louisiana
| religion=[[Roman Catholic]]
|alma_mater=University of Louisiana at [[Lafayette]]}}
'''Michael Paul Huval''', known as '''Mike "Pete" Huval''' (born February 1, 1956), is an [[insurance]] agent from Breaux Bridge in south [[Louisiana]], who is a [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]-turned-[[Republican Party|Republican]] state representative for District 46 in Iberia, St. Landry, and St. Martin parishes, a position that he has held since a [[special election]] in 2011.
==Background==
From 1996 to 2011, Huval was the District 4 member of the St. Martin Parish governing council. He won his first race for the council, then known as the police jury, in the fall of 1995, with 51 percent of the vote in a three-candidate all Democratic race.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 21, 1995.</ref> In that capacity, he was active in the Louisiana Police Jury Association. In 2003, he established the Mike Huval Agency based in Breaux Bridge and Opelousas in St. Landry Parish.<ref name=pvs/>
On May 19, 2015, Representative Huval joined three other fellow [[Moderate Republican]]s sitting on the House Civil Law and Procedure Committee who voted to table on a 10-2 vote the proposed Marriage and Conscience Act, authored by Republican then state Representative [[Mike Johnson]] of Bossier Parish, who in 2016 was elected to Louisiana's 4th congressional district seat. Johnson's legislation carried the support of the [[conservative]] Louisiana Family Forum and Republican then [[Governor]] [[Bobby Jindal]]. Nancy Landry, another Moderate Republican from [[Lafayette]], also opposed the Marriage and Conscience Act. She left the House in 2019 to become chief of staff to Louisiana Secretary of State [[Kyle Ardoin]]. Only fellow Republican [[Ray Garofalo]] of Chalmette in St. Bernard Parish, one of the few Republican unseated in the 2019 legislative elections, stood with Johnson. After the defeat, Jindal announced an executive order to implement the measure. Johnson explained that the measure was designed to block the state government from retaliatory action against a company because the owner may oppose same-sex marriage.<ref>Emily Lane, "Louisiana's religious freedom bill effectively defeated in committee," ''The New Orleans Times-Picayune,'' May 19, 2015.</ref>
In the runoff election held on November 16, 2019, Huval narrowly won reelection to a third term by defeating another Republican businessman, Keith Baudin (born 1962), a drilling supervisor for a [[petroleum]] company. Huval polled 7,744 votes (51 percent) to Baudin's 7,480 (49 percent).<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, November 16, 2019.</ref>
===Huval joins Democrats in choosing House Speaker===
On January 13, 2020, Huval was among twenty-three Republican lawmakers, known as the [[Louisiana Republican Fraud Squad|Fraud Squad]], who voted for the [[Moderate Republican]] [[Clay Schexnayder]] of Ascension Parish, whose election as [[Speaker]] depended heavily on the votes of thirty-five Democratic lawmakers, along with two [[Independent]]s, and the Republican defectors. Statewide [[radio]] commentator [[Moon Griffon]] coined the term "Fraud Squad" for the twenty-three dissidents nominally in the Republican Party.<ref>''[[Moon Griffon|The Moon Griffon Show]],'' January 23, 2020.</ref>
Huval was term-limited in the primary held on October 14, 2023.
==References==
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:State Representatives]]
[[Category:Former Democrats]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Moderate Republicans]]
[[Category:Catholics]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]
[[Category:Knights of Columbus]]