In 1966, though he had suffered a series of strokes, Willis still defeated Lafayette oilman Hall Lyons, the son of then Republican state chairman and former gubernatorial candidate Charlton Lyons of Shreveport. Willis received 46,533 votes (59.7 percent) to Lyons' 31,444 (40.3 percent). Lyons, who ran on a staunchly conservative platform, carried Iberia Parish with 51.4 percent of the vote and received 46 percent in Lafayette Parish. Hall Lyons later left the Republican Party and was the American Independent nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1972. In retrospect, 1966 was a warning to Willis about his electoral future.