How much does the Trump endorsement matter for Sen. Berger?
Trump’s blessing is a huge get — but in a race this local and this personal, it’s more shield than sword.
North Carolina’s highest-profile Republican primary is quickly turning into a soap opera.
We learned yesterday that Sen. Amy Galey drove across the Triad to leave a handwritten “please don’t file” letter on Sheriff Sam Page’s doorstep.
And now you’ve got President Donald Trump parachuting in to endorse Sen. Phil Berger.
Undoubtedly, President Trump’s endorsement is a huge get for Berger. One of Page’s main attack lines has been that Berger is insufficiently loyal to Trump. That’s effectively gone now.
Political consultant Jonathan Felts — who worked with U.S. Sen. Ted Budd when Trump’s endorsement put him over the top in the 2022 Senate primary — wasted no time driving the point home. He pronounced Page “dust in the wind.”
With all due respect, I’m not so sure.
Why Berger needed this so badly
Berger has been the most powerful Republican in North Carolina for more than a decade. That comes with a certain mythology: master strategist, iron grip on the Senate, king of the budget process.
It als…