2027 NRA Board Election

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Petition Deadline For NRA Candidates Is 28 Days

September 15, 2026 by 0 Comments

The window closes for NRA petition candidates to get all of their signatures in to the Office of the Secretary on October 13th. That is hard deadline and there is no “natural disaster”, “act of God”, or other exception to that. Petition candidates need 285 valid signatures to be placed on the ballot.

A valid signature is one from a Life Member or from an Annual Member with five or more years of continuous, unbroken membership. The online signature process, to the best of my knowledge, will validate that the signer is a valid signer.

I have spoken with a number of petition candidates. Many are close but have hit a plateau and need help getting to the final number. Below are links to my earlier posts on petition candidates. I support as many people being on the ballot as possible. Choice is good and petition candidates are there because you put them there. It is why I was so determined to be doubly nominated in 2025 when I ran for the Board. No offense to the Nominating Committee but it was your signature on my petition that ultimately mattered the most to me.

Just as importantly, it shows compliance with Judge Cohen’s Final Judgment which mandated the online petition process but also urged, in so many words, the NRA to find new candidates. While the latter is the responsibility of the Nominating Committee, you as a voting member can help that process by signing these candidates’ petitions. With one exception, every candidate whose petition is below would be a “New Qualified Candidate.”

Edie Fleeman, Terri Townsend, and Chris Rakyta

Three More NRA Petition Candidates

Todd Vandermyde, David Mitten, Mark Shuell, and Chuck Cunningham

Petitions For The 2027 NRA Ballot (Repost)

Wade Callender

NRA Petition Candidate Needs Your Help

Dennis Fusaro

Petition Candidate Needs Signatures

Chuck Rowe

Another NRA Petition Candidate

I want to be clear. Each and every one of these candidates deserves to be on the ballot. Since we don’t know who the Nominating Committee will ultimately nominate, I will reserve my final endorsement on actually voting for Candidate X or Candidate Y until I see the full slate.

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Three More NRA Petition Candidates

September 10, 2026 by 0 Comments

Running by petition has become even more critical than ever. The NRA Nominating Committee met on August 29th and then recessed until after the September board meeting. The reason is that there are some proposed bylaw amendments that could impact who and how many the committee nominates. The bottom line is that no one other than committee members know who is or isn’t going to be a nominee.

Under NRA Bylaw Article VIII, Sec. 3(b), petition signatures must be received in the Secretary’s Office no later than 45 days “after the announced date of the meeting of the Nominating Committee to select nominees for the office of Director.” In laymen’s terms, this means a minimum of 285 valid petition signatures must be received in the Secretary’s Office by October 13, 2026. This 45 day period is a bold print bylaw which means it can only be changed by the vote of the members and that is there no leeway for signatures received after October 13th to be counted.

I believe the three women below deserve a chance to be on the ballot. I have signed each of their petitions. I am an advocate of having as large and as diverse a pool of candidates as possible for members to vote on. This is in keeping with both the spirit and the letter of the Final Judgment of the NY court.

Edie Fleeman

Edie has been a member of the Board of Directors for many years. She serves as chair of the Air Gun, Collegiate Programs, and Protest Committee as well as vice-chair of Competition Rules and Smallbore Committees. She is a long-time competitor and was the coach of the North Carolina State University Rifle Team before it was disbanded by the NCSU Athletic Department.

Edie’s petition: https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/474afe09-804b-424f-b447-ac79edf9a23d

Terri Townsend

Terri, a non-director, serves as the chair of the NRA’s Black Powder Committee. She is a competitor in black powder events including those sponsored by the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association. Terri is also a member of the Competition Rules Committee.

Terri’s petition: https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/2f4d9273-96e3-4726-83ca-ea020364df4b

Chris Rakyta

Chris is an accomplished smallbore shooter and is a member of the NRA’s Smallbore Committee. By training, she is a mechanical engineer and is the senior director of R&D and engineering for an Ohio-based home furnishings company. She would bring both managerial and competition experience to the Board.

Chris’ petition: https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/cb399be6-fe38-477a-bcee-e4472c6e8a8f

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NRA Petition Candidate Needs Your Help

September 7, 2026 by 0 Comments

Wade Callender has decided to run for the NRA Board of Directors by petition. When I ran into Wade at this year’s SHOT Show he had mentioned that a run for the Board was in the back of his mind.

For those that don’t know Wade, he served as Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel of NRA-ILA for three years. Prior to that he had served as the general counsel of a software company and as a JAG officer in the US Navy. Currently, he has his own legal practice in the Dallas metro area. Wade was endorsed as a potential successor to Wayne LaPierre as EVP back in 2024 by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes. More importantly, Wade stood in the way of Bill Brewer getting his hooks into ILA’s assets.

I have known Wade on a personal basis for a few years now. He has my support. Both the Complementary Spouse and I have signed his petition. If you are a voting members – life or five year continuous annual member – please consider signing Wade’s petition.

Wade’s Petition: https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/925021a2-ed4b-480c-bd9c-1f4b798c0e85

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Petitions For The 2027 NRA Ballot (Repost)

August 10, 2026 by 3 Comments

Repost: If you are a voting member of the NRA and have not already signed these petitions, I’d urge you to do so ASAP. They are all off to a good start and need just a push to make the required 285 valid signatures needed to be on the ballot.

As I learned myself in 2024 when I first started gathering signatures to be on the 2025 NRA ballot for the Board, it is better to start early. Once the Nominating Committee meets and issues its report, there only remain 45 days in which to get the required number of signatures and submit them. Importantly, that is a hard 45 days with no exceptions made for natural disasters, war, or other calamities.

Some of the candidates below may also get nominated by the Nominating Committee. Frankly, in my opinion, a dually nominated candidate is stronger and was the reason I chose to continue the petition process even after I was nominated by the Nominating Committee.

The candidates below include two sitting Board members, two who served limited terms replacing two who had resigned, and one candidate who has never served on the Board but brings lots of experience.

If you are a voting member of the NRA, you are eligible to sign these petitions. A voting member is a Life Member of whatever level or an Annual Member with five or more years of continuous, unbroken membership. The electronic petition process will kick you out if you are not eligible to sign the petition or at least that is my understanding.

Todd Vandermyde

Todd is serving a one-year term on the Board of Directors. Todd brings the experience of having fought in the trenches in a blue state for gun rights as well as serving as president of the largest gun club in Illinois. He asks the questions that others either don’t think of or are too timid to ask. He lives and breathes the Second Amendment and ways to advance it. Among the board committees Todd serves on are Legal Affairs and Legislative Policy. Having nominated Todd twice for the Board, I can say without reservation he has my full support and we need people like Todd on the Board.

Todd’s petition: https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/1aaf6d83-59ab-4359-8155-78ebc00caa63

Huey Laugesen

Huey was elected to a one-year term on the Board of Directors in April. He is the executive director of the Colorado Shooting Sports Association and has brought new life to that organization. Before being elected to the Board, Huey served with me on the Membership Committee and I thought he advanced effective ways to reinvigorate our membership recruiting efforts. I endorsed him in the 2026 election and would be proud to do it again. He is now also serving on the Legislative Policy Committee with me where he will be bringing, like Todd above, the experience of fighting for rights in a blue state. Huey may be the youngest director on the Board but far from the least experienced.

Huey’s petition: https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/1b5b06d4-d28c-415e-abeb-33da7fb00ccf

David Mitten

David was part of the ElectANewNRA team in 2025 and finished a runner-up. When former NRA President Bob Barr resigned, David took his place on the Board. He was not on the 2026 ballot but is running this time. He currently serves as a non-director member of three NRA committees – Collegiate, Education & Training, and Gun Collectors. David is a retired teacher from Ohio who, among other things, helped develop the curriculum for the Ohio Hunter Education program.

David’s petition: https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/761a1fe8-b495-489f-a92b-8870b45a8aa0

Mark Shuell

Mark was nominated for the Board in 2025 but finished a runner-up. He assumed a seat on the Board when Gene Roach resigned. Mark is a retired financial planner from Michigan who has been very active in grassroots activism in advancement of the 2nd Amendment. He won the 2023 NRA-ILA Jay M. Littlefield Volunteer of the Year award for his efforts. He currently serves on both the Action Shooting and Grassroots Outreach Committees as a non-director member. Mark in 2025 was one of those candidates left in“no man’s land”. Despite this, based upon multiple conversations with him, his heart lies with reform. He was endorsed in 2025 by Jeff Knox which probably didn’t endear him to the Old Guard.

Mark’s petition: https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/e420c4e0-dd37-4f91-84a3-5bb5bd39cf68

Chuck Cunningham

Chuck is currently the Director of State, Local, and International Affairs at the Veterans Administration. In years prior to that he served as a Senior VP for Government Affairs for the non-profit Securing America’s Future Energy among other such positions. Much more importantly, he worked for NRA-ILA for almost 17 years where he served alternately as Director of State and Local Affairs and as Director of Federal Affairs. To say he would be a valuable addition to the Board is an understatement. Finally, he is assisting in raising funds for the Virginia Militia Clause lawsuit which I recently wrote about.

Chuck’s petition: https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/0d00d119-aa6c-476e-9894-4617a1294855

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Petition Candidate Needs Signatures

August 9, 2026 by 5 Comments

NRA Board member Dennis Fusaro is one of the four original “Four for Reform” candidates. He and the others three – Rocky Marshall, Jeff Knox, and Phil Journey – got on the ballot by petition and won seats on the Board. They cracked open the door to reform and the revolution that followed.

Dennis wasn’t sure he’d run for re-election until recently. He has now thrown his hat into the ring and is running by petition. Whether he will be nominated by the Nominating Committee is unknown. Regardless, he deserves to be on the ballot.

I don’t always agree with Dennis but I do respect his commitment to the Second Amendment and the hard work he has done behind the scenes to promote it.

Yesterday I was on a conference call with leaders of gun rights organizations from Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Montana. This call was arranged by Dennis to gather support for an amicus brief by former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in support of overturning the bans on ARs and other semi-automatic firearms. That Dennis could pull in leaders for such a call on a Saturday afternoon says something.

Dennis has also led the effort to raise money to challenge the Virginia magazine and “assault weapons” ban in Virginia state court. While that effort lost at the initial level, I think it has a chance to go further. This was not just a spur of the moment effort by Dennis. As early as last year he was arranging conference calls with legal scholar Dr. Edwin Vieira to lay the groundwork for challenging the Virginia law based upon their state constitution’s militia clause.

If you are a voting member of the NRA, I’d urge you to use the link below to sign Dennis’ petition. The Complementary Spouse and I have both signed his petition. As a reminder a voting member is a Life member of any level or an Annual member with five or more years of continuous, unbroken membership.

Dennis Fusaro

Petition Link: https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/df266476-4cbe-4fcb-a7f7-3acc8e21c669

Dennis marches to the beat of his own drummer as we all should do. He speaks his mind and sometimes has taken his lumps for it. However, his commitment to reforming and growing the NRA and his commitment to advancing our Second Amendment rights is without question.

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Another NRA Petition Candidate

July 1, 2026 by 1 Comment

Chuck Rowe is seeking to be on the NRA Board of Directors ballot for 2027 by petition. I supported him as a write-in candidate in this past election as did Jeff Knox. Chuck was a runner-up in the 2025 election and briefly served on the Board.

While on the Board, Chuck did yeoman’s work in rationalizing competition rules of the NRA so that it fit in with both international rules and the CMP’s rules. To me, that was a thankless job and not one that I’d want to undertake. Fortunately, Chuck was there.

In his daily life, Chuck is a Certified Public Accountant with extensive experience as a CEO and in private equity. We need business experience like that on the Board.

Just as importantly, Chuck has served as captain of the US Rifle Team, is a NRA National Championship title holder, and received the NRA Master Distinguished Coach Medal. Having someone with these credentials helps broaden the perspectives on the Board.

Chuck’s petition link is below:

https://nra.directnominations.net/Petitions/Sign/574c3ee4-3d5a-40ed-bce0-d7ab1d6142f9

I have sent Chuck’s name to the Nominating Committee for consideration. However, a dually nominated, by the Nominating Committee and by petition, is a stronger candidate.

I would encourage all voting members to give Chuck’s petition your consideration. As a reminder, a NRA voting member is either a life member of whatever level or an annual member with five or more years of continuous, unbroken membership.