Phil Berger neglected his own district. Now he may lose it. | Opinion
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It will take a recount to decide who won the state Senate primary in the 26th District, but even if he wins, Sen. Phil Berger lost.
As leader of the Senate, Berger has spent 15 years insisting that the Draconian policies of the Republican majority reflected “the will of the people.” Turns out, his performance didn’t even reflect the will of his home county.
Berger lost Rockingham County in his Republican primary contest with Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page by a 2-to-1 margin. Voters in the Guilford County portion of the district bailed out Berger by giving him a 2-to-1 advantage there. For now, Page leads the race by two votes.
It’s not that Guilford preferred Berger. It’s more likely that voters there were not as familiar with a sheriff from a neighboring county. That knowledge gap was compounded by Berger’s vast advantage in campaign contributions from outside groups. Berger’s campaign and outside groups spent more than $8.6 million on the primary, according to a report in The Assembly. Meanwhile, Page spent a tiny fraction of that amount.
But for all that, the most powerful politician in North Carolina ended up in a virtual tie with a local sheriff.
This wasn’t a contest about ideology. Berger and Page are equally conservative. President Donald Trump endorsed Berger — after he agreed to further gerrymander the state’s congressional districts to protect the president. But Trump also spoke approvingly of Page.
This was a race about service and priorities. Page, the Rockingham sheriff for more than two decades, served the people of his county. Berger spent his time in Raleigh cutting taxes that mostly benefit large corporations and the wealthy. Berger also served well-funded special interests, such as Duke Energy and the home builders’ lobby.
Berger got into political trouble when he backed a casino industry’s push to open non-tribal casinos in North Carolina — including one in Rockingham County. Most of his home county’s residents didn’t want a casino, or at least wanted more say in what was proposed. They didn’t appreciate that their state senator was putting a casino developer’s interests ahead of their own. That’s when Berger’s reliable lock on reelection broke.
Rockingham voters may also have come to notice that having the Senate leader as their representative wasn’t doing much for them. In fact, all of rural North Carolina has benefitted little despite being the base of the legislature’s Republican majority. The Republican-led legislature under Berger long refused to expand Medicaid, putting pressure on rural hospitals. And Republicans have failed to adequately fund public schools, often the largest employer in rural areas.
Ironically, Berger’s efforts to ensure his and other Republicans’ election through extreme gerrymandering may cost him is seat. If he was serving a less red constituency, he might have been more attentive to a district he couldn’t take for granted.
Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@newsobserver.com