as Louisiana Secretary of State in another upset. An opening appeared when veteran Secretary of State Wade O. Martin Jr., who was then a Democrat but later switched to the Republican Party, stepped down to launch an unsuccessful gubernatorial attempt. Hardy came from behind to beat his fellow Democratic opponent, State Representative P.J. Mills of Shreveport. In the primary, Mills had led with 49 percent of the vote. Hardy narrowly prevailed in the runoff—officially the general election in Louisiana. He polled 388,780 votes (51.5 percent) to Mills' 366,510 (48.5 percent). Running for governor at 37 In 1979, Hardy ran for governor. Endorsed by former Governor John McKeithen, he carried eighteen parishes in the nonpartisan blanket primary, but he missed securing a general election berth by 4 percentage points. Hardy finished in fourth place with 227,026 votes (16.6 percent). In a disputed third place was outgoing Lieutenant Governor James E. "Jimmy" Fitzmorris Jr., of New Orleans, with 280,760 (20.6 percent). The general election would feature Republican David C. Treen of Jefferson Parish, with 297,674 (21.8 percent), and Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Louis J. Lambert of Ascension Parish, with 283,277 (20.7 percent). Hardy hence lost a general election slot by some 56,000 votes. Fitzmorris filed suit in the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge, but Judge Douglas Gonzales, a Republican, ruled that Fitzmorris failed to provide evidence that enough fraudulent votes were cast for Lambert to impact the outcome of the second-place candidacy. Though he was still then a Democrat, Hardy endorsed Treen over Lambert. In 1978, he had supported the Republican Jimmy Wilson, a former state representative from Vivian for Louisiana's 4th congressional district seat in Congress, rather than the successful Democrat, Buddy Leach of Leesville. In 1976, Hardy endorsed then U.S. President Gerald R. Ford Jr., over Jimmy Carter of Georgia, who polled Louisiana's ten electoral votes. Thereafter, Treen, who narrowly defeated Lambert in the general election, appointed Hardy as Louisiana's secretary of transportation. While there, he supervised the spending of a record $2 billion on highways. When Hardy vacated the secretary of state's position, the two top votegetters, Sandra Thompson, director of the Atchafalaya Basin Culture, Recreation, and Tourism project, and State Senator James H. "Jim" Brown of Ferriday, went into a general election showdown. Brown emerged a narrow winner. Republican lieutenant governor Hardy switched parties and ran as a Republican in 1987 for lieutenant governor. First though