A local sheriff from his district is challenging the most powerful Republican lawmaker in North Carolina.

Senate leader Phil Berger, who lives in Eden, will have a primary opponent in the 2026 election if he decides to run for reelection.

Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page announced his run exclusively to The News & Observer on Thursday.

Page previously ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in the 2024 Republican primary, coming in fifth in a field of six candidates, with 10% of the vote.

Page is among a group of Rockingham County residents who came to Raleigh in 2023 for a press conference against the notion of allowing a casino in the county. Berger was in favor of a plan to allow casino gambling outside tribal lands that would have placed casinos in his district and a few others, but could not reach a deal with House Republicans.

Page said that he considered running against Berger in the 2024 election but chose lieutenant governor instead. Page, who was first elected county sheriff in 1998 and has four decades of experience in law enforcement, said public safety is his top issue.

He was president of the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association in 2010 and this year serves on the National Sheriffs’ Association Border Security Committee.

He’ll also seek the endorsement of President Donald Trump, and has long been a supporter of Trump and his U.S.-Mexico border policies. Page said in addition to leading Sheriffs for Trump in 2016, he has been part of law enforcement roundtables with Trump, and was in Washington recently again to support Trump border policies.

Trump campaigned in 2024 on mass deportations of immigrants in the country illegally.

Page echoed Thursday what he said during the lieutenant governor primary about public safety being most important, and combating the opioid crisis and fentanyl epidemic. He also supports putting school resource officers in every school.

Page and Berger at odds for years

Page and Berger have long been at odds, and a conservative group’s poll in 2023 asked potential voters in their district about a state Senate matchup, The News & Observer previously reported.

In September 2023, the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners approved a rezoning of land in preparation for a casino, despite opposition from some residents, both locally and during the rally outside the Legislative Building.

Senate leader Berger’s son Kevin Berger is chair of the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners.

Proponents of casino expansion in North Carolina point to growing competition for gamblers’ money just across the border in Virginia. Rockingham County is north of Greensboro along the border, close to a new casino in Danville, Virginia.

Page said then, as he does now, that residents should have more of a say in whether a casino comes to Rockingham County, and more transparency about the process.

“I think that when you bring up bills that definitely appear to be controversial, you need to be open and communicate with the public that you work for. You need to, if you want to pass a bill, you need to build that support. I don’t think that was done. I think it was kind of just thrown on the citizens,” Page said.

He said thinks “there are other kind of businesses that we in the legislature can work towards supporting and encouraging to come to North Carolina, besides just filling up the state with casinos and the gaming system.”

Senate seat does not come with same Senate power

Page said he’s running regardless of if Berger seeks another term. Berger has been the Senate president pro tempore for more than a decade, and in the minority party before that. His power has taken years to build, and is tied to his support among Senate Republicans. If Page wins the seat, he would become one of the rank-and-file.

Asked about reelection plans on Wednesday, Berger noted that the candidate filing period does not begin until December, “and I continue to enjoy what I get to do.”

Berger said he didn’t want to “prejudge any decision that really doesn’t have to be made until later in the year.”

Page said he’s setting up a campaign website and committee in the next few days.

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