Visit Bill Ingram's official campaign Web page to learn more here.

Local man campaigns to put himself in White House

Bill Ingram poses next to his semi truck that he travels the country in for his presidential campaign. Photo by Emily Rae Hartwig/The Spectator

A semi truck. A banner. A dream.

That’s all one local man has to spread his message. He’s not rich. He can’t afford elaborate campaigns. He can’t afford a jet to take him all over the country, but he believes he can win – win something that he’s wanted for several years.

As his banner hanging on the back of his truck states, Bill Ingram, 50, of Elk Mound, Wis. wants to “Put A Working Man in the White House:” himself.

Ingram wants to be the next president of the United States.

After retiring from UW-Eau Claire’s University Police Department last year, Ingram decided to take to the road. He bought a semi truck and started traveling the country with his wife, Pamela, and dog, Tyson, meeting people along the way.

“That’s really what gave me the opportunity to do this, because you hear people complaining about things as we’re driving from place to place,” Ingram said.

So he started to think that his time had come to run for president and decided to run as an independent.

“I’ve got the education. I’ve got the experience,” he said. “We’ve got insight into the issues of the common working people that these million dollar candidates don’t have.”

Ingram’s wife said she first heard of his plan to run for president when they met six years ago, but he wanted to do it even earlier than that.

“He said when the time was right, he’d do it,” she said. “He came to me and said ‘The time is here. I’m going to run,’ and I stand behind my husband 100 percent.”

At a Colfax, Wis. parade on Sept. 8, Ingram officially announced his candidacy.
He said people were surprised but very supportive.

“I’ve got the education. I’ve got the experience. We’ve got insight into the issues of the common working people that these million dollar candidates don’t have.” Bill Ingram

“This thing has been overwhelmingly positive,” he said, adding that the thought of one woman at the parade still makes him laugh.

“One lady was feeding a baby and was like ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ ” he said, referring to when he handed her his information.

“She read the card and almost dropped the baby,” he said in between laughter.

Her husband's campaign is still in the very early stages, Pamela Ingram said, but within six months they hope to go national.

“We’re going to make our presence known,” she said, adding that Bill Ingram will give speeches across the country and travel extensively, listening to hard-working American citizens and proposing initiatives that he says will greatly improve the lives of working and retired Americans.

So far, Bill Ingram said he thinks he’s got an advantage over the other candidates.

“I’m in a unique position. I’m traveling around the country on my own,” he said. “Other candidates leasing corporate jets get their whole entourage staff … and when you’re flying from point to point, you’re not seeing the country. You’re not face to face with people.”
And he said having this close interaction has taught him a great deal and allowed him to meet a lot of interesting people.

“A lot of times it’s just some kid working at a fast food restaurant at a truck stop that’s so friendly and so attentive," he said. "That’s the thing that has impressed me."

In order to help these people and others like them around the country, Ingram said he is running as an independent candidate, because he said he is tired of hearing about important issues being divided along party lines. He said if a Democrat or Republican candidate gets elected again, the same old political problems will arise.

First and foremost, Ingram said if elected he would pull the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“They categorize it as war. It’s not war,” he said. “Terrorism is a crime. It needs to be dealt with as a crime.”

On his official campaign Web site, Ingram states that he would let the CIA and foreign intelligence and law enforcement agencies identify terrorists and their headquarters, training camps and other facilities to deal with terror.

“Since the terrorist like using bombs, I recommend that once a terrorist site is identified we simply drop one of our mega bombs on it,” according to his Web site. “In this day and age, no American fighting man or woman should set foot on foreign soil when dealing with terrorism. Simply put, terror should be dealt with with terror.”

Secondly, Ingram said he wants to revitalize the American Dream.

“There are so many people years away from retirement that are going to be up to their eyeballs in debt,” he said. “We need to work on some things to get them out of debt.”

He said he thinks the cost of medical care is much too high and a low cost should be available to everyone. If elected, he said he wants to see a 75 percent decrease in these costs. To do this, he said he plans to identify ways to reduce costs, such as reducing malpractice insurance and expensive testing and retesting.

Ingram said the credit industry is also putting people in debt by taking advantage of them. He said if something isn’t done soon, more people will be forced to file bankruptcy, something he knows all too well after having filed for bankruptcy himself several years ago.

When he was up against a supervisor for a promotion at a previous job and lost, the supervisor had Ingram fired, he said, forcing Ingram to file for bankruptcy. This bankruptcy experience, however, gave him insight into the credit industry. He appealed the termination and was reinstated a year later.

“That was one of the things that really got me into this running thing,” Ingram said. “I know where many Americans have been or I know where they’re going and I know ways of preventing this.”

Plus, he said overall he’s just got the experience of an ordinary working man.

He has a degree from UW-Eau Claire in business and has held leadership positions throughout his life.

Ingram started in law enforcement as a special agent with the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations where he did crime scene and forensic investigations.

From there, he went to Europe to work on an anti-terrorist team to guard VIPs. He eventually went back to UW-Eau Claire to finish his degree at UW-Eau Claire, where he started working at its University Police while taking a few classes.

Eventually, he became full-time with the University Police and graduated with a business degree in 1997.

“It took me 20 years from the day I took my first college class to the time I got my degree,” he said.

He is also a fire fighter, EMS First Responder, a Director of Emergency Management, a search and rescue pilot and has been a first aid instructor. Ingram has been a farmer and vice president of a software development company, as well.

“I’ve done just about everything,” he said.

And it is because all of these experiences and insights that Pamela and Bill Ingram said they truly believe he can win this race.

“The way he addresses the problems that the people have been telling him about, he’s got what it takes to make a difference and make this a better country,” Pamela Ingram said. “If he becomes president, he will be a very good president. He listens to what people say and he works with them and he has the same feelings. He’s gone through a lot of stuff and he knows what people want. It’s time for change.”

Bill Ingram said he believes if he can go national he can be that change.

“This has just been amazing. It’s just taken off unbelievably beyond what our expectations were,” he said. “If (the press) gets my ideas out there and gives it the same amount of press, (as his opponents) this thing’s going to take off.”

If that’s the case, Pamela Ingram said she isn’t thinking about what that would mean for her.

“I don’t know about being the next First Lady. I haven’t thought that far yet,” she said with a laugh.

But she said one thing’s for certain.

“I think he’ll make a change for the good,” she said. “I really, really do."