2024 NRA Board Nominations

I received a copy of the NRA Nominating Committee’s list of official nominations for the 2024 Board of Directors election this evening. I cannot say I’m surprised by who is nominated.

There are 28 people nominated for the Board of Directors. Out of these 28 nominees, there are only three who would be new to the Board while the remaining 25 are current directors. Moreover, to illustrate how it is the same people nominated year after year, 23 out of the 25 were also nominated three years ago in 2021. Charles Beers and Rick Ector, current board members, were both first elected in 2023.

The three new nominees are Craig Haggard of Indiana, Susannah Warner Kipke of Maryland, and Gina Roberts of California New Mexico.

Haggard is a Representative in the Indiana House of Representatives representing District 57. According to his official biography, he is a commercial broker, was the NRA field representative for Indiana for six years, and was an aviator in both the Marines and Indiana Air National Guard.

Kipke is the name plaintiff along with the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association in the NRA-sponsored lawsuit challenging the post-Bruen restrictions that the Maryland enacted on carry outside the home. She is the wife of Delegate Nic Kipke who represents Anne Arundel County in the Maryland House of Delegates. In addition, she is the owner of Mrs. Kipke’s Secure Gun Storage in Millersville, MD. LinkedIn has her as the senior regional director for Hillsdale College which I assume is a fundraising position.

Roberts has been the California State Director for the DC Project. Unlike the other two candidates, I have met Gina numerous times at the SHOT Show, NRA Annual Meeting, and GRPC. I do know she has been active with the San Diego County Gun Owners. According to her Facebook posts, she is newly employed with Spaceport America, Virgin Galactic’s Gateway to Space, in New Mexico.

Below is the complete list of nominations from the NRA Nominating Committee.

2024-NRA-Board-Nominations

Willes Lee Out; Bob Barr In

Just before noon, I received a press release from the NRA. At first, I expected it to say what a success the Annual Meeting was and how the officers had all been re-elected. Instead the first paragraph contained a shocker. Willes Lee had been replaced as 1st Vice President and replaced by former Congressman Bob Barr (R-GA). Whoa!

From the release:

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) announces the election results from its Board of Directors Meeting held in Indianapolis, IN. Charles Cotton was reelected NRA President, former Congressman Bob Barr was elected as First Vice President, and David Coy reelected Second Vice President.

In recognition of his extraordinary leadership these past two years, the NRA Board of Directors  voted unanimously to amend its bylaws to allow Cotton to succeed himself for a third term. In addition to his responsibilities as NRA President, Cotton is Chairman of the Audit Committee and a transformational leader.

LaPierre was re-elected by the NRA Board of Directors, who annually elect the CEO/EVP. The Board of Directors are elected by NRA members. This followed a vote at the NRA Members Meeting on April 15, 2023, where members expressed confidence in Mr. LaPierre.

I have to laugh when they said Charles Cotton was a “transformational leader”. That would be true if you meant the leader who helped make the NRA a defunct organization. As to the members expressing “confidence” in Wayne, about 1/3 or so of those in attendance at the Meeting of the Members including me voted FOR the resolution offered by Jeff Knox expressing “no confidence” in LaPierre.

As to why Willes Lee was dumped, it is speculated that his resignation from the Special Litigation Committee was considered “disloyalty”. As a Florida politician who had voted with Marion Hammer 95% of the time noted, she considered him a “traitor”. I had understood that he felt blindsided when the move to let Charles Cotton have a third term was floated. He was not consulted nor told in advance of this move. I heard other speculation that his resignation from the Special Litigation Committee could have been due to a disagreement with Bill Brewer on litigation strategy.

Lee found this under his hotel room door on Sunday night prior to Monday’s Board of Directors meeting.

Again, the friends of Wayne blindsided Lee. A former director told me that Bob Barr was a true, blue supporter of Wayne. I was also told by another former director that he was surprised that it wasn’t Ronnie Barrett who also supports Wayne. What is surprising is that David Coy was not moved to the 1st VP position with Barr becoming the 2nd VP. This makes Barr as the presumptive nominee for President of the NRA in 2024.

The Facebook page of Lee contains some interesting stuff. He even included an article by Jeff Knox criticizing the Special Litigation Committee. Mind you it was Jeff who offered the resolution of no confidence in Wayne at the Meeting of Members. Normally, something like Jeff’s article would have been ignored as if it never happened and not worthy of comment. Lee also said that he believes in transparency and will never “keep secrets” from the Board.

In other Board news, Carrie Lightfoot reportedly has resigned and will be replaced by Charles Beers. I understand her resignation was due to a need to take care of a family member and to give more attention to her business.

In an ironic twist, Lee reports that the best text he has received today was one that said, “Oh. No. They Ollie’d you, at annual meeting, in Indianapolis. lol.” He even acknowledged how he was part of those who did it to Ollie in 2019.

I’ll put this out there. If any member of the Board of Directors wants to contact me, either on or off the record, my blog email is gunsandmoneyblog AT gmail DOT com.