How is Bill Hayes? He’s leading young people to change America and finding new ways to eat?

A 66-year-old man born and raised in Athens county is leading the next generation of people on political reform and the future of packaged eating.

Bill Hayes–an Ohio University alum, avid outdoorsman, an Independent, a former candidate for Athens County Commissioner and a local volunteer–has not let his loss on the Athens County Commission slow him down. 

Hayes has maintained the same goal throughout his political career: seeing the current state of politics within the United States change. He attended a Forward Party meeting in March to discuss various topics, but primarily a canned food drive for victims of the East Palestine train derailment. 

When asked what brought him to that Forward Party meeting, Hayes responded, “I am all for helping anyone, especially younger people, who understand that the current situation of politics in America is absolutely intolerable and that we must do something to change it.”

Hayes previously ran for Athens County commissioner as an Independent candidate. During his 2022 campaign for county commissioner, Hayes got over 10% of the vote. A big feat for any third-party candidate.

“Here I am in the bluest county in the state, in a country that is torn, almost to the point of a civil war, red versus blue and I got over 10% with a Republican and a Democrat running,” Hayes said. 

Despite not winning the Athens County commissioner race, Hayes learned a great deal and wants to pass on what he learned, primarily to younger people that want to see a change in the electoral system. 

“One of the reasons why I’ve run for office, locally, is to learn about the process. I got to tell you, I was stunned to find out it cost me $140 dollars to get on the ballot, that’s it. You got to give $80 to the local board of elections and you have to grease the ethics committee with 60 bucks,” said Hayes. 

Aside from paying these fees, the only thing left to do for an aspiring candidate is to get the signatures, according to Hayes. 

“If you are a Democrat or Republican you only need 80, because they control the electoral process in Ohio. Last time I had to have I think 235 signatures, valid signatures, to get on the ballot and you have to go through them with a fine-toothed comb, because if they find any issues with a signature they’ll throw them out, seriously. I had to do this three times,” Hayes said. “I wanted to learn that to help other people get on the ballot.”

Danny DeLuca of Red Brick Tavern, University Rentals and a member of Forward is taking Hayes’ advice to heart. 

“Any insight from an Independent candidate is going to be very helpful for the Forward Party in general because we’re basically running as Independents almost. We are going to be not left, not right but forward, so we’re going to basically take on that block of independent thought … his knowledge of how it works is going to be very helpful for any future candidates that we’re going to have, especially on the local level,” DeLuca said. 

A big goal of the Forward Party is to establish ranked-choice voting, however, when Hayes was asked if it could help Independent candidates or candidates of parties other than Republican or Democrat he said: “Even if we have ranked-choice voting in Ohio today, or anywhere, it won’t make a bit of difference if we don’t get more people involved in running. If you only got two candidates, ranked-choice voting doesn’t matter. If you got three, it might have some effect. If you got five ranked-choice voting really counts.”

Through attending several different meetings for local political groups like Forward, Hayes wants to see his mission of more candidates on ballots come to fruition. However, his own name will not be on any ballots going forward. 

“You know, if I can get younger people involved I’d rather see them do it,” Hayes said of his political future. “I’ve got other projects that I’m working on around here in economic development that I really want to put more time and effort into. I can be more effective with them outside of office than I could in office.”

One of these projects Hayes has been working on, outside of growing the ballot, deals with retort pouch canning. Retort pouch canning is the same process that is used to make Meals Ready-to-Eat (MRES) for the U.S. military. 

“I have found out that this process is being done by people all over the world, in their own kitchens. I have a case of 1,000 of these pouches sitting in my house right now! I have met with some officials from ODA (Ohio Department of Agriculture), not USDA I don’t want to meet with them, to learn about all their different regulations and all the hoops we’re going to have to jump through with them…I want to get a retort pouch canning facility going here in this county,” Hayes said. 

Hayes’ goal for this facility would be to give local farmers another outlet to get their produce and goods into the market, a market he claims is stable. 

“You can sell this stuff year-round to survivalists and disaster relief people and this can be the financial incentive to create a greenhouse here in this county,” Hayes said. 

It may be the end of Hayes’ political career in Athens County, but politics will not hold him back from serving the people of Athens and teaching young people how to create a change in the election system.