How Berger lost, his legacy, and what he can do to finish strong.

It’s the end of an era—the era of North Carolina’s recovery and growth under the leadership of Phil Berger, the Senate President Pro Tempore. Last Tuesday, two weeks after the March primary election where Berger finished just 2 votes behind his challenger Sheriff Sam Page, Berger conceded to Page when a machine recount and a partial eye hand recount solidified Page’s lead at a mere 23 votes. Out of 26,247 votes cast in the Republican primary, the vote was split almost evenly except for those 23 votes. We’ve seen close elections before, but this one was proof that every vote counts in every election.

Berger became Minority Leader of the Republican Caucus in 2005, and in 2010 when Republicans gained control of the Senate, he was elected Senate President and has led the Senate for the past 15 years. Republicans have never ruled as the majority party without Berger at the helm of the Senate.

According to news reports, two PAC’s (political action committees) run by former Governor Pat McCrory’s nephew Patrick Sebastian spent over $800,000 on ads criticizing Berger. When asked why he got involved on behalf of groups opposing the powerful Senate leader, Sebastian said, “I’ve not been a fan of Sen. Berger for a while, and I think it was time for a change.” One other PAC funded largely by Democrats and two 501(c)(4) nonprofits run by Democrats spent thousands to oppose Berger too. Sam Page’s campaign raised only $81,000, spending only $3,000 of it according to campaign finance records. So, the independent expenditures by the outside groups for Page made up far more of the campaign than did Sam Page’s own campaign.

More concerning, there seems to have been an orchestrated strategy by Democrats to encourage unaffiliated voters who have never voted in a Republican primary to choose a Republican ballot and vote for Page. A deeper dive needs to be made, but it’s no secret that Democrats were salivating at the opportunity to unseat North Carolina’s most powerful Republican.

It should take away every Republican’s breath to see how flawlessly this campaign was executed—stir up trouble among Republican grassroots making Berger seem like the “problem,” start fly-by-night nonprofits that spend all their time and money levying criticism at Berger, capitalize on old Republican vendettas, spend lots of money pushing lies about Berger to the public, convert Democrat unaffiliated voters to a Republican ballot for one primary, and voila! You can take down the most powerful leader in North Carolina.

Senator Berger intends to serve out his term to the end of 2025 and remain as Senate President to the end. His concession to Sam Page was very humble, although he pursued his legal remedies to what he saw as the logical conclusion. And, no doubt, in this year’s session of the General Assembly, Senator Berger will be thinking about his legacy and what he wants to be remembered for. We still need Phil Berger to support legislation that advances family values in North Carolina, and a good place to end is with protecting our daughters. (For more information visit ncvalues.org/ourdaughters)

In light of his stunning primary defeat, it is fitting to remember the many good things Senator Berger did for North Carolina. When he was Minority Leader of the Senate, the Democratic majority in the General Assembly spent money like it grew on trees, until the great recession of 2007-2009 wrecked our state’s economy and obliterated the budget. When Berger took over as the Senate President, Republicans inherited a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit. Many don’t remember that during Governor Bev Purdue’s term, state employees and teachers were laid off and furloughed, and their jobs eliminated. North Carolina had the 5th highest unemployment rate in the nation, the highest taxes in the Southeast, was billions of dollars in debt to the federal government to pay our unemployed workers unemployment benefits, and had no rainy-day fund for emergencies like hurricanes.

Senator Berger led an amazing turnaround for North Carolina, fueling our state’s economy by reforming our tax code, dramatically lowering individual and corporate income tax rates, cutting burdensome regulations, eliminating wasteful spending, and attracting hundreds of thousands of new jobs. In 2013, our state’s top income tax rate was 7.75% and the standard deduction for married couples was $6,000. Today, it’s 3.99% and the standard deduction is $25,500. Income taxes have been cut in half, and you can keep nearly $20,000 more dollars per married couple before you owe a dime of taxes to North Carolina. Multibillion dollar deficits turned into surpluses year after year, and now our rainy-day fund holds approximately $3.62 billion, down from $4.75 billion following significant withdrawals for hurricane relief.

Because of the economic turnaround led by Senator Berger, North Carolina soared to the top in national rankings for business and places to live. Our state consistently scores in the top five of best places to live and work in sources like Forbes, CNBC, Chief Executive, and Site Selection Magazine.

But it wasn’t just an economic turnaround that Senator Berger led. Education has been a top priority of his initiatives. He is passionate about improving educational outcomes for children so they, too, can have the opportunity to fulfill their dreams no matter their family’s financial status. Some of his accomplishments in education include:

Read to Achieve—a program focused on improving literacy rates in elementary school
N.C. Promise—a tuition program making college accessible and affordable at $500 per semester at select UNC System schools
Opportunity Scholarship—a government-funded scholarship allowing parents to enroll their child in the school best fitting their needs, even a private school

There are numerous improvements in our state’s laws and policies that deal with social issues, or family values, that have occurred under Senator Berger’s leadership. These policy initiatives are law now partly because of Senator Berger’s support. Here are but a few:

Pro-Life

The Woman’s Right to Know law—which mandates that information and counseling be provided to women seeking an abortion 72 hours prior to the procedure, including information about abortion risks, gestational age, alternatives including adoption, and prenatal care.
Born Alive Infant Protection Act—requiring that babies born as the result of a failed abortion be given life-saving medical treatment. (The Born Alive Infant Protection Act had previously been vetoed by Governor Cooper in 2019.)
Care for Women, Children, and Families Act—limiting abortion at 12 weeks (instead of 20), establishing safety precautions making it illegal to ship abortion pills into the state for abortions, informed consent, prohibiting abortions based on race or Down syndrome, required reporting of abortions and complications due to abortion, and providing $160M in state funding to assist pregnant women.

Pro-Family

NC Marriage Amendment—establishing in the state constitution that marriage is the union between one man and one woman.
Parents Bill of Rights—establishing that parents, not schools, have the right to oversee the education and medical care for their children, prohibiting teaching gender ideology in the classroom in K-4th grade, and parental notification for a change of a child’s name or pronouns at school.
Limits on gender ideology—prohibiting biological boys from competing on girls’ sports teams, prohibiting biological boys from sharing sleeping facilities with girls in K-12th grade schools, protecting parents and adoptive parents who want to raise their child in accordance with biology and not gender identity, prohibiting medical gender transitioning for minors, and extending the statute of limitations to 10 years from the date of discovery of the harm for medical malpractice related to gender transition interventions.

These are but a few of the laws and policies passed under Senator Berger’s leadership that ensure that NC families can flourish. We choose not to let the few policy initiatives with which we do not agree, namely gambling, overshadow the phenomenal job he did in every other policy area he touched. Our state should thank him for his amazing ability to turn around both our state’s economy and the environment for families and children. North Carolina truly is the best place on earth to work and raise a family, due in part to the leadership of Senator Phil Berger. Surely, we can all agree Senator Berger deserves a sincere thank you from every citizen in North Carolina for his 25 years of service to the State.

And now, it’s time for Senator Berger to finish sealing his legacy!