From 1974 to 1981 he headed Lewis and Associates, a business consulting firm. He became involved in politics through a friend, Richard S. Schweiker, for whom he managed successful campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. During the 1960s and 1970s, he served in several political capacities: county committee member, chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party's finance committee, Republican candidate for governor in 1974, chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation to the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, and the deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee. The Philadelphia Inquirer described him as "among the two or three most powerful Republicans in Pennsylvania and one of the most powerful in the Northeast."Mark Stroh and Lea Sitton Stanley, "Drew Lewis pleads guilty to DUI charge", The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 10, 2002. During the 1976 Republican presidential campaign, Lewis, as head of the powerful Pennsylvania delegation, had backed Gerald Ford, over challenger Ronald Reagan. At the Republican convention, Reagan announced that if nominated he would name Richard Schweiker, Lewis' friend, as his running mate. Lewis had already committed to Ford and so honored his word, and kept his delegation in line to help nominate Ford as the Republican candidate. Reagan remembered his loyalty in 1980, and appointed Lewis to head his Pennsylvania campaign organization.
