A Miami Dolphins football fan, Harry once snagged a ticket online to a Dolphins-Tennessee Titans game. But the ticket put him on the Titans side. His neighbor was puzzled.
"The guy kept asking me. "What are you doing here?' I said, 'Well, that's where my ticket was.' But he didn't hassle me, he was pretty nice."
For the most part, Bertram's views are traditional conservative — smaller government, lower taxes.
He has run for office as a Republican and attended tea party rallies, where he was warmly received.
He is an ordinary guy who runs trains and likes the Dolphins.
Except there's one difference he's happy to point out.
"I'm not out of the ordinary, though I have a special knack in there for pointing out I think white people are being discriminated against. I think that should be addressed."
The discrimination takes such forms as affirmative action. "Do away with that. It should be based on performance and ability, not somebody's race."
He often uses the phrase "America first," and his radio ad explains it this way: "Our jobs are being exported overseas, while multiculturalism and immigration are destroying America's heritage. It's time for a new direction. Vote Harry Bertram for governor because we must secure a future for White America and our children."
Bertram is the first West Virginia candidate for the fledgling American Third Position party — the A3P.
"The A3P came into existence and they approached me, wanting me to be the West Virginia chairman. Being I had political experience and was pretty much aligned with these guys, I said OK."
Bertram's political experience includes unsuccessful runs for the House of Delegates in 2006 and 2008, and the Monongalia County Board of Education twice in 2010, when the original winner stepped down, setting up a special election.
The A3P ratified its constitution in November 2009. Its chairman is an international corporate lawyer with a law degree from Columbia University. Three of its five directors have doctorate degrees. It describes itself as "both a political party and activist organization dedicated to the interests vital to the preservation and continuity of ethnic European communities within the United States of America."
A3P's mission is "to fill a tremendous need in the United States today by providing the leadership and elected representatives necessary to return our nation to its rightful owners — by liberating it from the 'banksters and gangsters' who are ruthlessly plundering our American blood and treasure."
Bertram explains: "A white nationalist is somebody who loves their race and is willing to do something preserve it. It means putting America first. Stay out of foreign entanglements. … It's gotten to the point where it's bankrupting our country."
America's debt and deficit spending is so severe, he said, entitlements such as welfare and Social Security are in peril. "If you cut just about everything in the budget, you still won't be able to balance the budget."
A3P's 12-point platform mixes environmentalism, conservative economics, and America-first foreign and domestic policy with tough stances on crime and a drive to reignite the space program.
Bertram gathered 3,760 signatures — well above the required 1,765 — in all 55 counties, according to reports. He hired help and recruited friends to gather signatures.
He said he knows it takes a special kind of person to do the job — you can't be shy. "I'll ask anybody. I don't care if it's the biggest liberals in town."
One of his friends demonstrated democracy in action, approaching people known to lean left. They told the friend, "I know who Harry Bertram is. There's no way in hell I'm voting for Harry Bertram." But they signed the paper to get him on the ballot.
Born in West Virginia, Bertram, 51, served four years in the Army and a chunk of his life across the border in Ohio. "I could look right across the river, there was West Virginia." He re-crossed the river in 1990, a relationship — long since ended — and a job bringing him to Maidsville.
Bertram has been a railroad engineer and conductor for 13 years, and works for CSX. He lives in Maidsville with his wife of five years. "I try to keep my family out of the light in political stuff."
Bertram was the only one of the five gubernatorial candidates to refuse a meeting with The Dominion Post Editorial Board. The reason, he said, was that he didn't appreciate the manner of questioning his nationalist views, and how they differ from supremacist views.
Bertram defines a supremacist as someone devoted to dominating others. The A3P advocates the right of free association without compulsion.
The talk orbits around to the A3P again. Asked if America should stay out of all foreign affairs, he focuses on places such as Iraq and Afghanistan — what he considers no-win situations. In Afghanistan, the British came and went, the Russians came and went, and America will soon leave.
"We don't want to go out and police the world. War's a big business. There's a new boogeyman every month. … Nationalists tend to want to stay focused on their country; internationalists want to go around the world and get in all these conflicts," Bertram said. "There's so many problems that need to be fixed in this country."
