Republicans in North Carolina are on the verge of losing one of their longest-serving elected leaders. The argument could get ugly before it’s over.
Phil Berger, the North Carolina Senate president pro tempore, is facing a likely primary loss to Sam Page, a county sheriff from his home district who emerged from the election night tally with a two-vote lead. That lead has since grown to 23 votes. Separated from victory by less than 1 percent of the total vote tally, Berger this week requested a recount, which could take days or weeks to complete.
It’s no surprise that Berger, 74, is exhausting his options to stay in office. He has served in the North Carolina Senate since 2000 and has led the chamber as president pro tempore since 2011. That was the first year that Republicans gained majority control of the state legislature in more than a century. Ever since, Berger has been at the forefront of what the New York Times once described as the state’s “pent-up conservative revolution.”
He has helped lead a string of efforts that have put the state in the middle of the culture wars, fighting against the legalization of gay marriage and requiring trans people to use bathrooms that align with their gender assigned at birth. He has pushed to make voting districts more favorable to Republicans and fought for control of the state elections board. In the process he has politically weakened the state’s governors, including those of his own party, while gradually chipping away at the powers of the executive office in favor of the state legislature.
For all his conservative bona fides, Berger has also brokered compromise decisions. He initially opposed the expansion of Medicaid in North Carolina under Obamacare, like many other red state leaders. But Berger later led a charge to expand it, saying it was a good financial deal for the state, and he brought the Republican caucus along with him. Following a corporate backlash to Republicans’ trans bathroom bill, Berger struck a deal with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to repeal it, while also temporarily blocking cities from passing their own LGBT protections.
“For the past 15 years since the GOP took over [the legislature], he has by far been the most powerful Republican official in this state,” says Catawba College political scientist Michael Bitzer. “Everything that the Republicans have done legislatively is at the power of Phil Berger.”
State Senate presidents and other state legislative leaders have some powers that are specific to the offices they hold, like assigning members to committees, setting the legislative agenda and controlling the flow of bills. But they draw just as much power from their relationships with other members and their longevity in office. It’s not common for top legislative leaders to lose their re-election bids, let alone their primaries. The last major upset was in New Jersey in 2021, when Steve Sweeney, the Democratic president of the state Senate, lost the general election to a Trump-aligned Republican. It was a fluke in the district, which swung back to Democrats two years later. And it didn’t do much to alter the dynamics of the state Legislature, as Sweeney’s influence was largely a function of his connection to a South Jersey Democratic Party organization, which outlives his presidency.
The situation is different in North Carolina. Berger has held the president pro tempore position for 15 years and is the only living Republican to have ever held the role. It’s not clear who his successor would be, assuming Republicans hold onto their majority in the fall.
It almost certainly won’t be Sam Page, whose likely victory over Berger in the Senate primary is tied to Berger’s support for a controversial casino project in the district, and to Page’s longstanding presence locally. Page has acknowledged Berger’s right to request a recount, but claims victory. Meanwhile, Berger’s personal ties to the North Carolina elections apparatus, including a son on the state’s highest appeals court, are under scrutiny locally. Berger’s campaign is also citing some irregularities, such as voters receiving incorrect ballots, in its recount request. The recount comes on the heels of another contested election in North Carolina, in which a Republican candidate for the state Supreme Court tried to have some 60,000 votes invalidated, stretching out the appeals process for six months before conceding.
The last person to lead the North Carolina Senate’s Republican caucus was Patrick Ballantine, who joined the chamber in 1994 and became minority leader when Republicans were outnumbered 39-11. Berger took over the post when Ballantine resigned to run for governor in 2004, winning the Republican nomination but losing the election. Ballantine, who now works in the state Capitol as a lobbyist, says Berger had the right temperament to lead the Senate, and that Republicans’ successes over the last few years are due in part to Berger’s own personal qualities as a leader.
“He was just a perfect choice. He was smart. He was calm,” Ballantine told Governing, before remembering he wasn’t being interviewed for an obituary. “Well, he is …”
(John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Preckwinkle Perseveres
This week in Cook County, Ill., home to Chicago and a population very nearly half as big as North Carolina’s, a long-serving Democrat all but secured another term. Toni Preckwinkle, president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, beat back a moderate challenger in the Democratic primary and is on the verge of winning a fifth term. Having served on the Chicago City Council from 1991 until she joined the county board in 2010, Preckwinkle has set herself up for a second consecutive 20-year run in local elected office. Preckwinkle is already the longest-serving president of the Cook County Board.
Being president of the Cook County Board is a less flashy role than being mayor of Chicago. Preckwinkle herself ran for mayor in 2019, losing to former Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a runoff. But it comes with a lot of direct power over public policy and spending in the Chicago area, and Preckwinkle, who also chairs the county Democratic Party, has been an influential figure in the city for decades.
A self-identified “progressive” in a Democratic city with shifting political factions, Preckwinkle was a history teacher before she ran for elected office. She has backed criminal-justice reform causes, such as ending cash bail, while overseeing improvements to the county’s finances. She was backed by the Chicago Teachers Union during her losing mayoral campaign in 2019, and later endorsed fellow teacher and union organizer Brandon Johnson when he challenged Lightfoot at the end of her first term.
Johnson went on to win the mayoralty, but his popularity has tanked since. He faces a tough re-election landscape next year. Still, the progressive caucus on the 50-member Chicago City Council has grown. The council now has three established factions, says Dick Simpson, a political science professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Chicago and a former alderman: A small group of conservatives, a larger group of left-wing progressives, and an even larger group of moderate Democrats. It was one of the more moderate members, Brendan Reilly, the council president pro tempore, who challenged Preckwinkle for the county board seat. Preckwinkle, the more progressive candidate, pulled out a resounding win.
The race shouldn’t be seen as an indication of improving fortunes for Mayor Johnson, says Simpson. He predicts Johnson will lose to a moderate challenger next year. Preckwinkle, who turned 79 on election day, has already served through two entire Chicago mayoralties in her tenure as president of the county board. How many more can she outlast?
