Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page’s lead over North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger widened Friday after provisional ballots were tallied in the neck-and-neck GOP primary for the state’s 26th Senate District.
Page now leads by 23 votes — but the counting still isn’t done yet. There are still outstanding overseas and military votes in the race. There are so few of those ballots — fewer than six, officials say — that even if Berger wins them all, he’d still be trailing Page. But that doesn’t make Page the immediate winner.
The lead is still within the threshold for a recount, which Berger is expected to request, setting off what’s expected to be a closely watched odyssey of elections process and potential lawsuits in a race that could upend the power dynamics in the state legislature.
Page had 13,136 votes after all provisional ballots were counted, officials said Friday, widening his lead to 23 votes over Berger’s tally of 13,113. Provisional ballots are those that needed further investigations to determine if they’d be allowed to count — for instance if a voter showed up to the wrong precinct, or without acceptable photo ID. Officials will count overseas and military votes before the end of next week.
Page picked up 56 provisional votes in Rockingham County and Berger earned 26 in Rockingham, according to the state’s elections website. In Guilford, Page earned three provisional votes, while Berger gained 10.
After early votes and Election Day ballots were tallied Tuesday, Page led Berger by just two votes. The majority of the provisional ballots were in Rockingham County, where Page heavily outperformed Berger on Election Day. The district also includes some of the more rural parts of Guilford County, outside of Greensboro.
The final vote count is expected by the end of next week. If the margin of victory is less than one percentage point in the official count, the trailing candidate can request a recount by March 17.
Page’s campaign expects the certification process will yield a result in his favor. “It’s an honor to be chosen by the majority of voters as our party’s nominee,” Page said in a statement Friday night. “Now we’ll keep working hard to win in November and serve the people of Guilford and Rockingham counties.”
Representatives Berger campaign didn’t immediately provide a comment when reached late Friday.
Because of the stakes of the race, scrutiny on the electoral process has been elevated, along with calls for independent oversight of a possible recount.
On Wednesday, Page asked State Auditor Dave Boliek — who ultimately oversees state elections — to recuse himself from a possible recount. Boliek endorsed Berger in the race and added several former Berger lieutenants to the auditor’s office staff. Boliek’s office and state board officials say the auditor doesn’t have a role in the vote-tallying process.
Bob Rucho, a Republican member of the State Board of Elections and Berger ally, resigned from the board on Thursday. Rucho had made public statements in support of Berger and against Page ahead of the primary, even though board members are expected to refrain from partisan statements.
Legislative leaders rarely lose elections, much less primaries. However, Page posed a legitimate threat to Berger because he gained name recognition while serving as Rockingham County sheriff for more than two decades, and because he endeared himself to residents frustrated by Berger’s consideration of a casino in the district in 2023. Berger maintains that he welcomed public feedback and took it into consideration, as evidenced by his decision to abandon the idea.
Berger and his allies painted Page as someone who can’t handle more responsibility. They pointed to a string of deaths in the Rockingham County Detention Center, which is run by the sheriff’s office. Page has said the jail deaths had nothing to do with the conditions of the facility and has said his office has followed the law in managing the jails.
The district — sprawling from the Virginia border southward to cover rural areas of Rockingham and Guilford counties while avoiding the Democratic hubs of Greensboro and High Point — has attracted national attention because of the potential political fallout.
Berger became the Senate president pro tempore in 2011 when Republicans took control of the legislature for the first time in a century, and he has remained at the helm ever since. As leader of the Senate, he has strong influence over which measures advance in the chamber. He has stayed in the leadership position through several governors and House speakers. Over the past 15 years, Berger has led Republican measures to cut taxes, slash regulations, limit abortions, loosen gun laws and rewrite state policies to more align with the GOP’s agenda.
Berger’s legislative track record has helped him win 13 elections in a row by double-digit margins — and a few without any opposition.
President Donald Trump endorsed Berger in the race in December and urged Page — whom Trump has praised and considers a longtime supporter — to drop out of the race and instead work for his administration in Washington. Page helped lead Trump’s reelection campaign in North Carolina in 2020. When Trump called Page and offered the sheriff a job in Washington, D.C., Page declined, saying he could be more effective for Rockingham County residents in the state Senate.
