ADVOCATE SPOTLIGHT:
Isaac Demarest,
NRA Board Of Directors
At the age of 49, Isaac Demarest does more shooting than most members of his generation and the two that followed. For nearly two decades, Isaac has been an avid participant in tactical training; he’ll take 1-2 months off work from his private business to attend a variety of classes ranging from live fire rifle and pistol, to tactics courses covering CQB and SUT.
He’ll do this for weeks at a time taking classes back to back to back, averaging 200-300 hours of training hours a year. In light of this he considers himself an eternal student, having developed an impressive training resume over the years. He’s attended classes from the likes of Don Edwards (Greenline Tactical), Jon Dufresne (Kinetic Consulting), Scott Jedlinski (Modern Samurai Project), and Chuck Pressburg (Presscheck Consulting).
“Why does that matter to me?” you ask.
Because Isaac is on the National Rifle Association’s Board of Directors, and this year he’s seeking reelection to retain his seat. So if you’re an NRA voting member, he needs your help. If you’re not, keep reading anyway and find out how to become one if you feel inspired to support him by the time you’ve reached the end of this article.
Needless to say, Isaac is unique both as a shooter and as a politician; he probably attends more training in one year than most shooters do in five, which is to say he’s highly familiar with the culture and concerns of the community at the ground level. That familiarity is informed by a strong passion both for the craft and its continued longevity. The combination of these attributes dictates therefore that Isaac is a direct representative of the modern marksman in the organization, something we haven’t seen since Duane Liptak, the Executive Vice President of Magpul, held a seat on the Board.
While Isaac is indeed familiar with many of the criticisms levied upon the NRA that most with opinions lacking value will think of when they see those three letters written here, he puts in the work anyway and makes the effort to advocate for the tactical training demographic in spite of it. Because once upon a time, he was one of those guys that dismissively said “Screw the NRA.” Then his wife said “Quit your bitching and do something about it then,” and what would you know? He stepped up to plate and got in, more than most who jeer at the NRA can say they’d even attempted.
In that respect, that demographic (millennials in particular) is underrepresented at the highest levels of the NRA, and it’s for this reason that as far as Isaac is concerned, his work is not done yet. Isaac uses his perpetual study habit to foster communication with the community, learning not only from the instructors but also his fellow students to identify issues he can be effective in dealing with. As an example of his achievements, Isaac used his board position to leverage the NRA-ILA towards getting the ban lifted on simunition ammo used in force on force training in places like DARC and other shoot house classes, and supporting the manufacturers thereof.
There is an ulterior motive in his campaign: To step aside when he feels that the work is done, and pass the reins of stewardship to the next generation of the community vanguard. Success in this endeavor will require outreach on top of his advocacy, to properly mold his successors. His position on the board is vital to these foundational efforts, which have to be accomplished in phases.
After an orientation on the board, Isaac realized something many of the NRA’s current supporters had also come to acknowledge, unlike separatists and naysayers otherwise: The 2A infrastructure of the NRA is so gargantuan that it cannot be replaced or recreated; instead, it needed to be fixed from the inside out. This understanding was the first step our generation had to take to affect change for the better within the NRA. The next step is greater influence on the board composition.
The immediate goal in the year following his re-election, Isaac will move to find someone like him— like us— with the same experience and perspectives, and get them on the board. In two years’ time, Isaac will search for another, to bring the like-minded BOD member count to three. Once the training community can prove to get three people elected to the board, the next phase of Isaac’s plan is to have enough tactical shooters in the NRA membership to enable splitting their vote to two candidates and increasing their collective influence to six board members, and so on. In this manner, there would be a great enough presence representing tactically inclined shooters on multiple committees within the NRA, and as many votes along with them on the issues important to us.
The author of this article just turned 39. For nearly the whole of my two decades spent coming up in the community from my days as a tadpole in the big pond, one of the most often heard gripes about the NRA was about how Wayne LaPierre, the CEO and Executive Vice President of the NRA from 1991 to 2024, needed to go. Many found failure in him as the chief vanguard of the Second Amendment; people said he was negligent in the fulfillment of the fiduciary responsibility of his post. They said he was corrupt, and he was convicted of as much. They said he was a road block to regaining freedoms we had lost during his stewardship of the NRA, that he didn’t try hard enough to fight them, and rolled over when it came to stopping them.
Source: https://fortune.com/2024/01/05/nra-ceo-lapierre-resignation-trial-new-york-attorney-general/
He needed to go. And now he is gone. Now the opportunity is laid before the would-be successors of the firearms community to galvanize the NRA’s already expansive capabilities, and restore its reputation to that of the bulwark it was once seen as. Because you don’t turn on your strongest ally when they don’t move as fast as you think they should, ignorant of the circumstances. You seize the opportunity to make it yours, and in the process make it better, for those you would leave it behind to.
“How can I help?” So glad you asked. Going back to Step One: Helping Isaac Demarest retain his seat.
Anyone who’s been an NRA Member for five (5) consecutive years, or who possesses any form of lifetime membership (ex: Life, Endowment, Patron, Benefactor, etc) is eligible to vote in the upcoming election at NRAAM 2026.
Those with the ability to vote in the NRA election are asked to please consider “bullet voting,” or limiting your vote to one or two candidates. Your vote is divided into as many pieces as there are candidates; If there are 30 candidates, and you vote for one candidate, he gets all the pieces of the pie and the stronger vote tally in his favor. Vote for two candidates, they each get 15 votes in their column, so on and so forth, instead of one (1) piece each. If you only vote for Isaac, he gets 30 votes or all the pieces in his favor.
NRA ballots are either mailed out, or usually found in your monthly NRA magazine, so please be careful to not throw it away.
As it stands, Isaac Demarest is the one person on the Board Of Directors who actually uses and trains with the gear and tactics a great many of us value and prioritize. In a manner of speaking, he’s current. He’s not a fudd, or an apologist or compromiser. He represents a new era in NRA leadership, and he believes in the cause. Follow him.
If you’re not a consecutive five year member of the NRA but would still like to vote in the upcoming election for the Board Of Directors at NRAAM 2026 (April 16-19 in Houston, TX), and if you’d like to know more about Isaac’s background and experience, visit his website at the following link for further information and instructions on how to become a Life Member of the NRA.
https://www.isaacdemarestfornraboard.com/
Isaac Demarest will be one to keep an eye on. In the meantime…
Stay Dangerous.
Stay in this L.A.N.E.
