Candidate tries risky approach in bid to topple NC’s most powerful lawmaker | Opinion

You wouldn’t expect a rural Piedmont sheriff to have strong opinions on shrimp trawling. But there was Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page last week, standing in the legislative building rallying against a ban on it.

His protest wasn’t really about seafood. It was about Senate president pro tem Phil Berger.

Page, the conservative challenger looking to unseat North Carolina’s most powerful politician, is staking his campaign on being the anti-Berger. And to a large extent, it’s working. Early polls show him with a substantial lead in the presumptive matchup.

But there’s a danger in running as a pure foil. If Page starts looking like a contrarian first and a leader second, he could throw away his shot at shaking up Raleigh’s power structure.

The anti-Berger brand is real

Berger has spent two decades not just legislating, but building. He’s helped shape modern conservative governance in North Carolina, mastering the inside game of policy, procedure and political muscle. That success has earned him loyalty, influence and, over time, some backlash.

The very strengths that make Berger effective in Raleigh have created distance back home in Rockingham County.

Enter Page. After decades as sheriff, Page is one of the most recognizable political figures in the county. He floated a run against Berger in 2024, but ultimately lost a statewide bid for lieutenant governor. Now he’s trying again, this time with a laser focus on the senate seat.

On nearly every issue, Page has staked out the opposing side.

The process started with casinos. In 2023, Berger backed a plan to bring commercial gambling to Rockingham County, pushing it through a fast-tracked process with no public input. It didn’t sit well with voters — or with Page.

The sheriff emerged as one of the casino plan’s loudest critics, standing with angry residents at packed public meetings while Berger defended the idea from Raleigh. It was a defining moment. Page wasn’t just the local lawman anymore. He was the anti-Berger.

Since then, the list of issues has grown.

In a recent video with conservative influencer Shawn Hendrix, Page claimed to oppose not just the shrimp trawling ban, but also chemical company immunity and the raw milk crackdown. On the surface, it looks like a scattershot platform. But there’s a through-line.

“I wouldn’t just take a position to be opposite of Sen. Berger,” Page told me. “But the common theme is lack of transparency.”

The sheriff frames it as a broader critique of how Raleigh works. “I’ve got 92,000 bosses in Rockingham County. That’s who I work for,” he said. “People go to the legislature, and sometimes they change. Then you wonder — who are they listening to?”

Page’s message taps into a real undercurrent of frustration, one that spans pro-Trump populists, libertarians and anyone who just feels shut out of state government. In Rockingham County, that’s a lot of people.

Berger’s campaign declined to comment for this column.

But it’s a narrow path

The problem is, if Page isn’t careful, he risks turning into a caricature — opposing Berger not on principle, but out of reflex. That’s a mistake, too.

Reasonable conservatives can debate the merits of raw milk, chemical liability, and shrimp policy. But none of those are top-tier issues in this Senate race. To some voters, the message starts to sound more like a Facebook comment section than a governing agenda.

Page doesn’t need to turn every protest into a campaign stop. And he doesn’t need to oppose Berger on every front to make his case.

His most powerful arguments remain the ones rooted in Rockingham: the casino fight, the perception of top-down governance, and the sense that lawmakers in Raleigh stopped listening to the people who put them there. If Page sticks to that, he’s dangerous.

But if he becomes defined by obscure grievances and viral moments, he risks becoming easy to sideline: Someone who doesn’t understand the issues. Someone who can be painted as unserious.

If Page defines himself only in opposition, he misses the chance to articulate what he’d actually do differently — and why voters should trust him to do it.

That’s the risk of being the anti-Berger. It’s a powerful label, but it can’t be the whole platform.

This story was originally published July 8, 2025 at 9:57 AM with the headline "Candidate tries risky approach in bid to topple NC’s most powerful lawmaker | Opinion."