Primary night resulted in a stalemate. Sam Page leads Phil Berger by two votes.
This means there are three additional sets of ballots that still need to be examined to be potentially counted toward the final total: provisional ballots, mail ballots that need to be “cured”, and overseas/military ballots. The provisional and mail ballots will be examined and/or counted before the end of the week. The deadline for overseas/ military ballots is March 13 (i.e., next Friday).
This exposes a major defect in North Carolina’s election law. We ought to be able to have a definitive winner on Election night. This is somewhat of a mess.
Page won by a landslide in Rockingham County. This is a humiliating repudiation for Berger given the fact that this is his home county. The people of Rockingham County know Page and did not buy into all of the misleading, slanderous television advertising. This outcome ought to lead to some introspection on Berger’s part.
Berger won decisively in Guilford County where voters did not know Page nearly as well.
The Rockingham County voters likely had the casino proposal in the forefront of their minds. But there are other big issues with regard to Berger’s record— especially passing Medicaid expansion and the failure to restrict abortion more after the repeal of Roe v. Wade. His moves taken in Summerfield to aid David Couch’s development proposal also have been a matter of concern. In addition, Page made an issue of Berger failing to bring lots of jobs to Rockingham County even though he is the most powerful man in the state.
Remain mindful that Berger has done many good things since the Republicans won the majority in the General Assembly 16 years ago. The Republicans lost their de facto veto-proof majority last night; and losing Berger would set them back further.
Page seems to feel that the provisional ballots will land in his direction. I don’t know what the final outcome will be.
In the event Page truly wins the race, we don’t know what his voting record will prove to be because he has never held a comparable position.
But one thing seems clear. If this race ends up in litigation, Page is at a distinct disadvantage because Berger can muster the funds to pay for the best lawyers.
I am for the Devil you know over the one you don’t know.
That’s a reasonable position to take, Fred.
I just edited my post and added the statement that this outcome ought to lead to some introspection on Berger’s part. Had previously expressed the opinion that both candidates have strengths and weaknesses. I continue to believe that. This will be a fascinating process to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv51VtTADys
That made me laugh, Fred! Thanks…
Why Senator Berger Lost His Home County
In 2017 Senator Berger retreated from HB2, the “bathroom bill,” that restricted the access of biological males to women’s private spaces in government facilities. His retreat incentivized more radical agitation from the LGBTQ mafia.
In 2020 the Senator purchased a home in Raleigh for which the financing generated some controversy. Most important to Rockingham voters, the move signaled Berger’s growing distance from the people he represented.
During the elections in the same year, Berger distanced himself from the Republican presidential and gubernatorial nominees. He seldom endorses other GOP candidates openly, keeping his cards close, one might say.
But in 2022 he openly endorsed a Democrat judicial candidate against a Republican one, blatantly violating Party rules! The state and local party leadership refused to write a mere letter of reprimand, which probably planted in Berger’s mind that he was untouchable. The Senator never apologized or expressed any regrets for his disloyal action. The controversy within the Party was also met by strong arm tactics against Berger’s critics.
In 2022-2023 Senator Berger abruptly reversed his opposition to Medicaid expansion, leaving those who had spoken for his earlier position high and dry, and the state saddled with a serious burden to the budget. His reversal did not quiet Democrat demands for more government intervention in the medical/medical insurances systems.
In 2023 he pushed strongly for a casino in the county, completely ignoring the fact that the Rockingham GOP’s core constituency is religious right. The outrage was strong and widespread. The project was tabled – but Berger never expressed any remorse for misjudging the sentiments of his own people. Nor did he promise never again to raise the issue.
In 2024 he brought truckloads of out of state money into his son’s campaign for reelection to the Board of Commissioners, funding fiercely negative ads smearing his son’s primary opponents. He was clearly becoming a political bully to people in his own party. In the fall election he kept his own campaign well away from those of the GOP nominees for governor and president, demonstrating again that he was not a team player.
In that same election (2024), rookie candidate Steve Luking came closer than any other Democrat in at least a decade to beating Senator Berger at the polls. The election results made it clear that Berger’s popularity with Republicans and with independents was waning seriously and that Democrats were as eager as ever to remove him.
In 2025-26, the Senator brought boatloads of out of state money into his own reelection campaign, much of which was spent on mean-spirited and dishonest ads smearing his underdog primary challenger, the popular Sheriff Sam Page. The deluge of mailings, TV and other media ads signaled to many voters that Berger was in the pay of big money donors and no longer a genuine servant of the people. His pretentious claims to be a longtime friend of President Trump rang hollow, especially to those who knew he had never had a close connection to him. Photoshop images of Berger alongside the President drove home even more vividly the phoniness of his claims. Trump’s endorsement of the Senator merely raised suspicions of machinations among the Party establishment and that the President had been badly advised. The Senator’s extravagant last-minute flourish of appearances at events in the county, plus his showboating of new grants from the state merely suggested he was desperately trying to buy back the favor of the people who now had lost trust in him. They were not fooled.
The Senator’s disdain for his voters, particularly his fellow Republicans, is what sank his career. The proof is obvious – he lost his home county by a 2:1 margin in the primary!
W.E., thanks for a detailed explanation of Berger’s fall from grace in his home county.
I’m not yet sure the race is over. But as I watched the carpet-bombing with negative, misleading ads against Page, I intuitively felt that would not affect the perception the people in Rockingham County have of Page; and that it might backfire.