Iredell County sez: DISLOYAL !!!
I do believe that’s at least THREE county GOP organizations leveling that charge at state senator Phil Berger, president pro tem of that chamber and the Republican establishment’s ‘bag man’ in our state capital. Could there be more like this coming?
(Sources tell us 21 of the county GOP’s 22 executive committee members voted in favor of this action.)
We covered the Berger-Ed Wilson saga a few years ago. There’s been some recent heartburn about
Republican officials meddling in various Republican primaries. We’re finding more and more that some elected and unelected Republican establishment types are actually favoring Democrats in elections around the state.
Phil Berger is currently locked in a tough reelection battle with fellow Republican Sam Page – the incumbent sheriff in Berger’s home county of Rockingham. That vote happens in March 2026.
The first county resolution charging Berger with party disloyalty was from Duplin County way back in January, followed soon thereafter by Lee County. Both were “clean” resolutions dealing with only the disloyalty charges. Those should have been brought on for hearing before the State Executive Committee long before now, but they haven’t been. At the ExCom meeting after the state convention I raised the issue, and Chairman Simmons tried to dodge it by stating, incorrectly, that such charges had to come from the person’s home county or district. After the meeting, I pointed out the legislative history of why that provision had been adopted, as I wrote it while a member of the PoO Committee, and it was specifically intended so that any county or district could bring such charges. After months of further delays, the matter was finally submitted to the PoO committee which ruled that any county or district could bring those charges.
Again, Chairman Simons sought to get the PoO committee to help prevent a vote. He submitted a further question to the PoO committee asking whether voting on the issue now would be interfering in Berger’s primary. The PoO committee answered that NO, it would not be interfering in that primary.
Then Simmons appointed Billy Miller to chair the November ExCom meeting and turned to him for a lifeline to stop the vote. Miller then addressed only the charges brought by the Third District ExCom against Berger and said he would rule those out of order at the meeting because that resolution went into further problems with Berger beyond the party disloyalty. While that position, in and of itself, is very highly questionable, Miller also clearly overlooked the Duplin GOP and Lee GOP charges against Berger that were pending longer and are clean resolutions that deal only with the party disloyalty issue. Miller’s excuse does not hold water with them.
The Duplin and Lee charges against Berger need to be heard in November. The stalling by NCGOP has been going on for far too long.. If this is stalled any longer, it would be hard to see that stalling as anything other than deliberate interference in that State Senate primary by party leadership to cover up for Berger. That should not be tolerated, This issue should have been heard and adjudicated long before now.