Inside the money race to replace Phil Berger
New financial reports reveal who has the money and flexibility to compete for Senate leader and protect the Republican supermajority.
Last November, state Sen. Amy Galey drove out to Rockingham County with a warning for Sheriff Sam Page: Do not challenge Phil Berger.
A serious primary, she argued, would force the Senate president pro tem to spend money that otherwise could help vulnerable Republican senators — and could cost the party its supermajority.
Page ran anyway and beat Berger by 23 votes, ending the career of the man who has led the North Carolina Senate since Republicans took control in 2011.
And while Galey was wrong about whether Page could beat Berger, she appears to have been right about the money.
Berger ended the second quarter with just $40,381 in his account, according to newly filed campaign finance reports. That is an extraordinary reversal for a leader who has spent years serving as the financial center of the Senate Republican caucus.
At the same point in previous election cycles, Berger had:
$587,046 in 2024.
$1.03 million in 2022.
$1.31 million in 2020.
$1.61 million in 2018.
Berger did contribute a li…