Aycock was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1952 and, though a freshman member, was tapped by incoming Governor Robert F. Kennon as his choice for Speaker.

Ernest J. Wright, a labor organizer from New Orleans, was the first African-American candidate for lieutenant governor in the 1963 primary, the first member of his race to seek the office since the era of Reconstruction.

Aycock was in the second round of balloting Jimmie Davis' choice for lieutenant governor; his intraparty rival, George Bowdon, was endorsed from the start by the losing runoff candidate, Mayor deLesseps Story Morrison of New Orleans.

(Vaughn L. Phelps (born 1920), also of Monroe, the nominee of the Louisiana States' Rights Party, received 11,299 votes, the remaining 2.4 percent.)

Not until 1987, eleven months after Aycock's death, did a Republican, Paul Hardy of St. Martinville in St. Martin Parish, win the position, which had been otherwise reserved for Louisiana Democrats.

Aycock was thrust into a runoff with Chep Morrison's next choice for the position, attorney Claude B. Duval of Houma in Terrebonne Parish.

Duval, an "old-school" orator, was as conservative as Aycock, but he, like his gubernatorial ticket mate Morrison, fared poorly in central and northern Louisiana.

In the fall of 1964, Aycock endorsed Republican presidential nominee Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona, rather than his fellow Democrat, President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Several other Democrats joined Aycock in supporting Goldwater: Secretary of State Wade O. Martin, Jr., former Governors Sam Houston Jones of Lake Charles and Robert Kennon of Minden, Caddo Parish Sheriff J. Howell Flournoy, Monroe Mayor W. L. "Jack" Howard, and Plaquemines Parish political "boss" Leander H. Perez.

The Republicans held a rally at Tulane University in New Orleans to honor Goldwater and former Democrat-turned-Republican Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina as well as the defecting Louisiana Democrats, with then congressional candidate David C. Treen acting as master of ceremonies.

Edwards narrowly won the second primary and then went on to defeat Republican David Treen, then of Jefferson Parish, in the general election held on February 1, 1972.

Eleven candidates, ten Democratic and one Republican, entered the race to succeed Aycock, including two bankers, outgoing State Representative P.J.

The eventual Democratic nominee, Jimmy Fitzmorris, a former member of the New Orleans City Council, easily defeated the Republican choice, Treen's running-mate, former state Representative Morley A. Hudson of Shreveport.