Voting for just one, or only a few, is an effective way to give those votes a little more weight. Since it's all cumulative voting, with the highest vote getters getting seats, the weighting works like this:
You have 3 candidates you really want elected, so you vote for those three, then you go ahead and vote for 25 others to fully complete your ballot. Some of those 25 you voted for could very likely get more votes than any of your chosen 3, meaning you helped bump them above your chosen ones and might have helped push your 3 right out of contention.
By limiting your votes to only the few you really want to be elected, you're not running the risk of, in effect, voting against your own wishes.
It's called Bullet Voting, and it's what I have recommended for years, but that was when I was part of an insurgent effort trying to get my one or two candidates onto the Board against great odds.
This year, for the first time in decades, the "insurgents" are the establishment. We have the majority on the Board and were trying hard to grow that majority as much as possible, while also trying to block the "Old Guard" from being reelected. That's why we're encouraging that everyone vote a full slate of 28, and NOT vote for any of the "Old Guard" establishment candidates -- hopefully closing the door on their reelection bids.
There are two factions with advertisements in the ballot issue of the magazines. One a couple of pages before the ballot which links to StrongNRA.com. This is the "Old Guard" ad with, I think, 16 candidates.
The Other ad is two pages that sandwich the ballot package and looks like toasted parchment. That's the ElectaNewNRA.com group, or "NRA 2.0" with 28 recommended candidates, including 2 write-in candidates (Paul Babaz of Atlanta, GA, and Charles Brown of Dayton, OH).
Astute observers will notice that there are an additional 7 or so candidates who are not on either list. These are all new, mostly unaffiliated candidates.
I'm personally recommending most of the NRA 2.0 candidates, sans the few that have been on the Board for more than a couple of years. I round out my recommendations with most of the unaffiliated candidates, starting with Mark Shuell, who is the only one I know personally, and I also gave a vote to one or two of the NEW StrongNRA.com candidates.
My main focus is on getting new, well-qualified candidates elected, and keeping the Old Guard, Wayne LaPierre enablers off the Board. Your priorities may vary.
When in doubt, it's much better to Bullet Vote for people that you think are the best, than to just pick people at random or blindly follow some group's (or magazine writer's) lead.
Please vote though.
Here's the link to my endorsement article:
NRA Board Election 2025 Endorsements: Future of NRA is in Members’ Hands
