Lewis attended Rufus King High School, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and Moody Bible Institute. Worked as an evangelist for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Married; and became active in the organizations Citizens for Decency Through Law and Christian Business Men"s Committee (of which he was a regional director).
As of 1972–1974 he lived in the Town of Barton in Washington County. An ordained minister, Lewis founded Christian Bible Fellowship, a regional missionary society, in 1988. Lewis worked for a family owned business, Sunseed Natural Foods, in West Bend.
He served on the board of the Mid-American Health Organization and as its president (2002-2010).
He was elected to represent the newly created 53rd Assembly District (portions of Dodge, Fond du Lac, and Washington counties) in 1972 with 9341 votes, to 7939 for Democrat Lehman Eichstadt. He saw no challenge in the 1976 primary and was reelected easily.
In 1978 he was re-elected without opposition. Lewis became part of a group who attempted to persuade laser scientist Myron Muckerheide (formerly with National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to create a laser gun "designed to blind people", and to sell it to Guatemalan colonel Federico Fuentes in order to raise funds to build a laetrile factory in South America (Lewis had been a prominent Wisconsin advocate for the legalization and manufacture of laetrile).
Muckerheide contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the laser was never built, and in 1979 Lewis pled guilty to perjury for lying to a federal grand jury investigating the scheme.
Lewis, apologized, saying he "..made a very, very serious mistake and I regret that very much." Fellow Republican Governor Lee Dreyfus declined to request a presidential pardon for Lewis, although he was quoted as saying the six-month sentence was too harsh. Under the relevant provisions of Wisconsin law, Lewis was removed from office. In the subsequent special election, Mary Panzer was elected to take his place.
