Nominating Committee

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2026 NRA Board Candidates (Corrected)

October 12, 2025 by 8 Comments

The combined list of candidates for the 2026 NRA Board of Directors election was released on Friday. It includes all candidates that were either nominated by the Nominating Committee or who are in the ballot by petition. As a reminder, petition candidates needed a minimum of 363 valid signatures from NRA voting members.

Three candidates were also double nominated. That is they are on the ballot by both nomination and by petition. Last election, I was one of two who were double nominated as I considered it important to be on the ballot by the will of the members. This year’s three are Rob Beckman, Steve Schreiner, and Amanda Suffecool.

Looking over the list of candidates they range in age from 25 years old to over 90 with a lot in the middle. There is also a good geographical dispersion with candidates representing the West, Midwest, and East. There are also a number of new candidates who have never run for the Board previously. These new candidates are on the ballot by both methods.

I knew a number of what I consider the Old Guard were running by petition. Only three by my count made it. The shocker to me is the absence of former NRA President Charles Cotton who I erroneously thought had qualified by petition. I would be a hypocrite if I said I was upset by that.

If I have my numbers are correct, out of the 38 candidates, 25 will be elected to 3-year terms, one will be the 76th Director, and one will fill the remaining year of a two-year term that was open last year. Thus, 27 26 out of the 38 candidates will be elected.

The full, corrected list is below:

Combined Candidate List 2025-26 – CORRECTEDDownload

CORRECTION: I made an incorrect assumption about the two year term filled in 2025. That seat was to fill Carolyn Meadows’ seat that opened up in 2024. The remainder of that year was filled by next runner-up Kim Rhode. Then the 2025 election was to fill the full remaining two years of Meadows’ seat which went to first runner-up Joel Friedman. He will fill that seat until 2027.

Secretary John Frazer sent me this explanation:

A vacancy is filled initially by the next available runner-up (through the next Annual Meeting).  See Bylaws Art. IV sec. 2.  Then, after the meeting, the remainder of the term (one or two years) is filled by election.  See Art. VIII sec. 3(j).  This keeps the board’s “classes” equal when different lengths of vacancies occur.

To illustrate with Joel’s case, Carolyn Meadows was elected in 2024 to a three-year term, but resigned in August 2024. Kim Rhode was the next runner-up and filled the vacancy until the 2025 Annual Meeting.  On the 2025 ballot, Joel came in 26th, so he was elected to finish Carolyn’s term until 2027. 

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2025 NRA Nominating Committee Report

August 25, 2025 by 4 Comments

The NRA’s Nominating Committee met this past weekend to evaluate candidates for the 2026 Board of Director’s election. Out of 53 nominations, they selected 30 candidates of whom only 25 can be elected. Further, two candidates of the 30 nominated, former NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Steve Schreiner, were only nominated contingent to receiving an attendance waiver from the Board of Directors. Article IV, Section 1(a)(3) states that no existing director who has missed more than one-third of the meetings during his or her term is eligible for nomination absent a waiver. In other words, you need to have attended two out of three Board meetings per year.

Looking over the list which is embedded below, I am gratified to see that three out of the four people I nominated for the Board were nominated. I am very disappointed that Todd Vandermyde was not nominated. Based upon my conversation this afternoon with Todd, he is considering a run by petition. If he decides to do so, he will have my full support.

There are a number of other candidates whose petition drives I have supported on the list as well. These include Charlie Brown, Randy Luth, Todd Figard, and, of course, Amanda Suffecool. There are some good petition candidates out there in addition to Todd. One in particular would be Huey Laugesen of Colorado. I work with Huey on the Membership Committee and we need more like him on the Board. The job he has done in recruiting members for the Colorado Shooting Sports Association is fantastic.

The full report from the Nominating Committee is below:

Nominating Committee Report – 2025Download

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NRA Nominating Committee Priorities

July 18, 2025 by 7 Comments

Bear in mind that the Final Judgment mandated that the Nominating Committee should “endeavor” to find 20 additional candidates for the board who were qualified (5+ years as a Life Member and conflict free) and who had not served more than one term of office on the Board prior to 2022. In other words, Judge Cohen didn’t want to see the same old 25 or so people being nominated for the Board of Directors year after year.

Part of the nomination process approved by the court was for the Nominating Committee in consultation with the officers to develop a list of attributes that they were seeking in candidates for the Board. I reached out to Buz Mills who is chair of the Nominating Committee for this list of attributes. With his permission, here is the list that was developed.

The following attributes were identified as skills particularly desired over and above those normally evaluated:

Gap Analysis:

  • Insurance / risk management experience
  • Finance / Investment review
  • Competition Shooting
  • Membership organizational experience
  • Gun Collectors
  • Minorities (Hispanic, Black, Asian)
  • Younger individuals with business or program background

Other qualifications desired:

  • Ability to communicate effectively
  • High level of passion for the NRA and our advocacy
  • Availably to dedicate a great deal of time to the Association
  • Availability to commit to extensive travel
  • Great social media skills
  • Industry professionals
  • Media influencers

If you know of someone who be a great Board member, nominate them! Nominations have to be in to the Nominating Committee by August 3rd in order for nominees to fill out the requisite paperwork and for the Nominating Committee to evaluate it.

If you would like to run by run by petition, you need to request the petition (and nomination) package from the Secretary’s Office. I would send an email to Laura Green, the Assistant Secretary, at lgreen@nrahq.org to request it. She will send you the packet and will set up your online link to your petition.

As I have said before elsewhere, the Board will only be as good as those we have on the ballot. To be brutally honest, write-in candidates have little to no chance of being elected. I could be wrong but the only person I know of who got elected by way of a write-in vote was the late Charlton Heston and that was almost 30 years ago.

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85 Days And Counting

July 15, 2025 by 2 Comments

The NRA Bylaws (Art. VIII, Sec. 3(b)) state that all petition signatures must be received within 45 days after the Nominating Committee meets. With the Nominating Committee meeting on August 23, 2025, the cut-off date to submit petition signatures is October 7, 2025 or 85 days from now. The bylaws as they stand now have no provision for the extension of this date for force majure, hurricanes, or any other thing that would make it hard to get the signatures to the Office of the Secretary on time.

Click picture for link

The other deadline that is critical is August 3rd. This is the day by which names are to be submitted in nomination to the Nominating Committee for consideration. You can nominate a candidate for the Board of Directors online. You will need both their membership number and your own membership number along with addresses, etc. Just to be on the safe side, I think a conversation with the person you are nominating would be a good first step. He or she might have other commitments that would make serving on the Board a problem.

If running by petition, a candidate needs 0.5% of the number of participating voters in the prior year’s election. For 2026 this number is 363 which is one of the lowest on record. In the past, petitions were always on paper and each signature had to be verified by hand in the Office of the Secretary. However, as the New York court mandated in the fifth point of its Final Judgment, an online version is now available. I have signed a number of these already.

The one major limitation on obtaining signatures is that they must come from a voting member. A voting member is either a Life Member or an Annual Member with five years of continuous, unbroken membership. With many Annual Members dropping their membership due to their disgust over the excesses of Wayne and his coterie of friends, it is not as easy to find voting members as it was pre-2019. I and many of my fellow petition candidates certainly ran into this problem last year.

To run by petition, a candidate needs to request the petition (and nomination) package from the Secretary’s Office. I would send an email to Laura Green, the Assistant Secretary, at lgreen@nrahq.org to request it. She will send you the packet and will set up your online link to your petition.

Judge Cohen’s order in the Final Judgment specified that the Nominating Committee was to “endeavor to identify up to 20 additional candidates” who met the required qualifications (Life Member of 5 plus years) and who did not serve more than one term on the Board prior to 2022. Judge Cohen referred to these as “New Qualified Candidates”. His goal was to expand the pool of nominees on the ballot and to bring new people and new ideas to the Board of Directors. He had noted it seemed the same people were getting nominated and elected year after year.

2025 was a watershed year in that 14 Directors were elected who had never served on the Board in the past. New directors are either Chair or Vice-Chair of five committees including critical ones such as Finance and Elections. Moreover, new directors are a majority on the Audit Committee which is a committee of the Board under NY Non-Profit Corporation Law.

Enough about the logistics.

The Board will only be as good as those nominated and elected. We need good people with the dedication to both the Second Amendment and board governance to run. We don’t need ticket punchers or resume polishers. We have had enough of those in the past! It goes beyond showing up to Board meetings three times a year. We need hard workers who will do the committee work necessary to help rebuild this 154 year old organization.

I have reached out to Buz Mills who is the chair of the Nominating Committee for skills they are seeking. I will post his response here when I get it. I can say from my own perspective that candidates with management, marketing, and finance skills, experience in non-profit governance, grass roots advocacy, and social media skills are especially welcome. I would also say that younger candidates who can reach out to millennials and Gen Z to become members are doubly welcome.

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2025 NRA Elected Committees And Appointees

April 30, 2025 by 2 Comments

One of the key agenda items on Monday’s Board of Directors meeting was the election of officers and election of members of various committees of the board. The latter is different from a regular committee because under New York Non-Profit Corporation Law, committees of the board have the delegated authority of the Board of Directors and can bind the Board. The committees elected during this meeting include the Executive Committee, the Nominating Committee, and the Audit Committee. Also elected were trustees for the Special Contribution Fund (aka Whittington Center) and the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund.

NRA In Danger has covered the election of the officers so I would refer you there for more details. Suffice it to say, it was a good day there for NRA 2.0.

With the exception of the Audit Committee and the trustees of the NRA CRDF, all were highly contested and all involved multiple rounds of voting as each person elected must have achieved a majority during that round of voting. For example, if a round of voting had 64 ballots cast, only candidates who achieved 32 votes or more would have been elected. Thus, if the leading candidate got 31 votes, they were not elected. What usually happened is that the lower vote getters would voluntarily remove themselves from contention and we would have another round of voting.

Italics indicate ex officio and names in bold generally indicate they are and were part of NRA 2.0.

Executive Committee

  • Bill Bachenberg* – Chairman
  • Mark Vaughan*
  • Rocky Marshall*
  • Thomas Arvas
  • Bob Barr
  • Charles Beers III
  • Anthony Colandro
  • Todd Ellis
  • Al Hammond
  • Craig Haggard
  • Maria Heil
  • Charles Hiltunen
  • Robert Mansell
  • Buz Mills
  • Janet Nyce
  • James Porter II
  • David Raney
  • Barbara Rumpel
  • Amanda Suffecool
  • Craig Swartz
  • Linda Walker
  • Bruce Widener
  • Robert Wos

The Nominating Committee is composed of six Board members and three Non-Board members. All seats on the Nominating Committee were won by those proposed by the NRA 2.0 side. Italics indicate Non-Board members.

Nominating Committee

  • Cam Edwards 
  • Al Hammond
  • Maria Heil
  • Robbie Love
  • Mitzy McCorvey
  • Buz Mills
  • Janet Nyce
  • Susan Springhorn
  • Robert Wos

Special Contribution Fund (Whittington Center) Trustees for Terms Ending in 2028

  • Al Hammond 
  • Robert Mansell
  • Barbara Rumpel
  • Craig Swartz

NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund Trustees for Terms Ending in 2028

Finally, there is the Audit Committee which is now a committee of the board as specified by Item 7 in the Final Order of the New York trial. Each member of the committee was proposed, one by one, by President Bill Bachenberg. After each proposed member was named, the Board had the opportunity to accept or reject the candidate. No one was rejected. Once all five were seated, the Audit Committee officially became an elected committee of the board.

Audit Committee

  1. Charlie Beers
  2. Rocky Marshall
  3. Jonathan Goldstein
  4. Theresa Inacker
  5. John Richardson

Obviously, you will notice that I was elected to the Audit Committee. The best way I can put it is that I wasn’t looking for the Audit Committee but the Audit Committee was looking for me. I would also like to point out that while Charlie Beers has not usually been associated with “the reformers”, his was the first name proposed for this committee at a caucus of the NRA 2.0 team given the exemplary job he has done on the committee previously.

The reformers are firmly in charge and it is up to us to revitalize, reinvigorate, and reform the NRA. You saw it at the Meeting of Members and you can see the results from the Board meeting. It isn’t perfect but it is more than a good start. Last year was the start and now we are moving into the next stage where we solidified the leadership changes begun in 2024. We still have a long road in front of us and need, as Frank Tait has written, to show members and potential members that there is a value in being a NRA member again. I think there is or I would haven’t bothered running.

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2025 NRA Board Candidates – Annotated

October 21, 2024 by

The combined list of candidates for the 2025 NRA Board of Directors’ election was sent out on Friday by Secretary John Frazer. This includes all of those who were nominated by the Nominating Committee plus those who were successfully added to the list by petition. There are two candidates, myself and John Sigler, who are “double nominated”. That is nominated by both petition and by the Nominating Committee. Additionally, James Gilmore and Grover Norquist who were nominated by the Nominating Committee declined their nominations.

Absent from this list are Charles Brown and Paul Babaz. Both failed to meet the October 8th deadline as they were impacted by the recent hurricanes. While not on this list of candidates, there is hope that they will be added one way or another.

Voting members may choose up to 28 candidates to fill 25 three-year terms that expire in 2028; one two-year term ending in 2027; and two one-year terms ending in 2026. This will be the year in which I will not be encouraging bullet voting but voting a complete ticket. More on that to come.

I have annotated the list of candidates below to reflect if they are currently on the Board, how they were nominated, where they stood with regard to the Special Litigation Committee, and if they are on the reform ticket of candidates. Greer Johnson and John Sigler replaced directors who resigned after the September board meeting where there was the vote on abolishing the Special Litigation Committee. While not a given, it should be assumed that they would have voted with the cabal to retain the SLC.

KEY

* = Petition Candidate

** = Nominating & Petition Candidate

Bold = Reform Ticket

+ = Current Board Member

@ = Voted to abolish SLC

#  = Voted to keep SLC

NOMINATING COMMITTEE & PETITION NOMINEES

1. Bob Barr +

Smyrna, Georgia

2. Sharon Callan

Tucson, Arizona

3. Anthony P. Colandro + @

Woodland Park, New Jersey

4. Larry E. Craig + #

Boise, Idaho

5. Isaac Demarest + #

Holland, Ohio

6. Steven Dulan + #

East Lansing, Michigan

7. Todd Ellis + @

Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania

8. Robert Scott Emslie*

St. Augustine, Florida

9. Richard Fairburn

Canton, Illinois

10. Richard Todd Figard*

Wadsworth, Ohio

11. Lawrence Finder

Houston, Texas

12. Jeff Fleetham

Mesa, Arizona

13. James Fotis

Lake Worth, Florida

14. Carol Frampton + #

Prosperity, South Carolina

15. Joel Friedman + #

Henderson, Nevada

16. Sandra S. Froman + #

Tucson, Arizona

17. Jonathan S. Goldstein*

Haverford, Pennsylvania

18. Philip Gray

Chillicothe, Ohio

19. Jack Hagan

Charleston, South Carolina

20. Al Hammond + @

Alachua, Florida

21. Charles T. Hiltunen, III + @

Indianapolis, Indiana

22. Theresa Inacker*

Tabernacle, New Jersey

23. Greer Johnson +

Duluth, Georgia

24. Tom King +

East Greenbush, New York

25. Lucretia Hughes Klucken

Loganville, Georgia

26. Willes K. Lee* + @

Arlington, Virginia

27. Howard Massingill*

Pueblo West, Colorado

28. Mitzy McCorvey +

Houston, Texas

29. David Mitten

Chillicothe, Ohio

30. James W. Porter II* + @

Birmingham, Alabama

31. Kim Rhode* + #

Monrovia, California

32. John Richardson**

Arden, North Carolina

33. Gene T. Roach

Shelbyville, Kentucky

34. Charles Rowe

Wadsworth, Ohio

35. Lane Ruhland

Lodi, Wisconsin

36. Ronald L. Schmeits +  @

Raton, New Mexico

37. James A. Sheckels*

Fayetteville, North Carolina

38. Mark Shuell

Auburn, Michigan

39. John C. Sigler** +

Dover, Delaware

40. Danny Stowers + #

Pearland, Texas

41. Regis Synan

Export, Pennsylvania

42. Frank Tait*

Wayne, Pennsylvania

43. Todd Vandermyde*

Yorkville, Illinois

44. Dwight D. Van Horn + #

Hayden, Idaho

45. Blaine Wade +

Bristol, Tennessee

46. James L. Wallace + @

Newburyport, Massachusetts

47. Knox Williams

Atlanta, Georgia

48. Jason Wilson*

Riverton, Wyoming

49. Cathy Wright + @

North Beach, Maryland

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We Made It By Petition

October 18, 2024 by 1 Comment

I received notification on Tuesday that I qualified for the 2025 NRA Board of Elections ballot by petition. It was thanks to you that I made it.

Richardson Petition Notification LetterDownload

According to an affidavit filed with the New York court on Wednesday by NRA Secretary John Frazer:

. As of the execution of this affidavit, 14 candidates have qualified for the 2025 ballot by submitting the required number of valid signatures as of the October 8 deadline. (Two of those candidates were also nominated by the Nominating Committee.) Three additional potential candidates submitted petitions, but
did not submit enough valid signatures as of the deadline to qualify.

First, I have no idea who the second candidate to be double nominated is. If anyone knows, please put it in the comments. Second, as of now, thanks to storm-related delays, neither Paul Babaz nor Charles Brown qualified. It is my understanding that each had enough signatures but did not make the October 8th deadline thanks to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Judge Cohen may have other ideas about whether they will be on the ballot or not. The New York Attorney General’s Office amended proposal is requesting an extension to November 15th for those petition candidates who are residents of North Carolina or Florida. Unfortunately, that will not help either Paul or Charlie as they reside in Georgia and Ohio respectively.

One question that comes up is why I bothered to seek to run by petition when I was already on the ballot thanks to the Nominating Committee. My answer is quite simple. While I appreciated the nomination by the Nominating Committee surprising as it was, being nominated by petition reflects the will of hundreds of rank and file NRA voting members who took the time and effort to sign and mail my petition. To me, that is a great honor which also comes with great responsibility if elected. I will endeavor to be worthy of that support.

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Guess Who Is On The Ballot For 2025?

August 28, 2024 by 1 Comment

Prepared to be as shocked as I was when I heard the news. I am on the ballot for the 2025 NRA Board of Directors election thanks to my nomination by Todd Vandermyde and the Nomination Committee making me one of the “official” nominees.

I understand thanks are due to committee member Bob Mansell, a reformer, who pushed my nomination. I wish to thank him for his efforts and will do my best to live up to his confidence in me.

As I am out of town – way out of town to be honest – I am going to link to NRA In Danger for the full list of those nominated.

Without diminishing the efforts of those who put me on the ballot through the Nominating Committee, I will continue to seek to also be on the ballot by petition. Being “double nominated” to me indicates that I am on the ballot, first and foremost, due to the efforts of the rank and file voting members. To me, that is supremely meaningful and I hope it will be to you as well.

There were many good people who did not get on the Nominating Committee’s ballot such as former NRA President Jim Porter among others. If he decides to run by petition, I certainly will post his petition and circulate it. There are other reformers who were not nominated and I’ll do the same for them.

If you are eligible to sign my petition, please do so. It can be found here. You can email me at jpr995 AT gmail DOT com for the mailing address. I must submit at least 398 good signatures on October 8th to be on the ballot by petition.

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Running For NRA Board Of Directors (Updated)

August 21, 2024 by 9 Comments

Some people already know this but I am running for the NRA Board of Directors. For a long time I thought I could be most useful outside looking in and reporting on what I saw. I think that is still valuable. Nonetheless, after much discussion between the Complementary Spouse and myself, I decided to take the plunge.

As to why I would submit myself to this, the answer is simple. Someone has to do it and better that the one doing it comes primed for reform. We in the Second Amendment community need a viable NRA. By viable, I mean one that can still put the fear of God in politicians, that will train people in proper firearm use and safety, and that will, in conjunction with other 2A groups, litigate the hell out of gun control laws.

Thanks to my friend Todd Vandermyde, my name has been submitted to the Nominating Committee. Likewise, I have submitted his name in nomination. I have returned the documentation that they have requested and the committee will be meeting in the last part of August to review those names submitted. Obviously, with the parties meeting on August 12th to hammer out the final court order the entire procedure may change. One interpretation of the interim court order is that anyone who met the qualifications – a Life Member of five years – will have their name on the ballot. We shall see.

Regardless of what the Nominating Committee or the court decides, I plan to run by petition. Ideally, I would be a dual-nominated candidate. My rationale is that a candidate who gets on the ballot by petition is there because the members want him or her there. Given my goal is to serve the members to the best of my abilities, that is as it should be.

To have my name placed on the ballot, I need to obtain the signatures of 398 voting members. More is better as some signatures will be ruled invalid. As a reminder, voting members are those who are either Life Members of any level or are Annual Members who have at least five years of continuous membership. The closing date for me to submit the petition with my name and your signatures on it is October 8th. Thus, I would need to have them back in my hand no later than October 1st.

My petition form is below. Please download and print it out on 8.5×11 inch letter size paper in landscape format.

UPDATE: I understand some people have had an issue downloading the petition from Scribd. I am attempting another method of making it available. If you can’t get it one way or another, just email me and I will be happy to send it by email.

John Richardson NRA Petition Form Landscape 2024-2025Download

In addition to your name and dated signature, the petition requires your membership number and your address as listed in the NRA’s files. If you look at the label on your official magazine, you will find your membership number in the upper right corner (see the picture below). You do not need the leading “zeros” in front of your membership number. Alternatively, your membership number is on your membership card.

Any help you can give in obtaining signatures will be gratefully accepted. I don’t care if it is one signature or multiple pages filled with signatures, they all are needed to get me on the ballot.

If you will email me at jpr9954 AT gmail DOT com, I will send you the address where to mail the signed petitions. Normally, I’d just put my address here but I’ve been getting a lot of spam comments from Russia and China. I don’t want to give them any more leeway if I can avoid it.

Again, thank you.

UPDATE II: I have received a very good response from you the readers. In the last two days I have received almost 20 letters with petitions containing almost 40 signatures. When added to what I picked up at the Gun Owners of America GOALS event in Knoxville this past weekend, I am off to a good start

I need to keep the momentum going. If you belong to a gun or sportsmen’s club, ask your fellow members to sign the petition. If you own a gun store or manage a range, please consider placing my petition on your counter. If you have friends who are as fed up as you and me with the grifting and corruption that has occurred, please forward them my petition. If you are a regular on a firearms, hunting, or outdoor forum, please put up a link to this post there. I will be doing that as well.

Remember, you can email me at jpr9954 AT gmail DOT com for instructions on where to send the petition. Given many procedures of the NRA remain in the 20th Century, petitions are required to be mailed back and not scanned/emailed. If you need a short bio to pass on to your friends, I even have one of those. I will say that was hard to write as I’m not the sort sing my own praises.