Senate leader Phil Berger is facing a “party disloyalty” charge from an N.C. Republican Party group that wants to see him banned from party leadership roles.
The resolution against Berger was passed over the weekend by the 3rd Congressional District Republican Party, which includes GOP leaders from Eastern North Carolina counties represented by Republican Congressman Greg Murphy. A Facebook post describes the vote as "unanimous," but it doesn't say how many people participated in the vote.
The move comes as Berger faces a primary challenge from Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. A similar “party disloyalty” resolution was passed in March by the Lee County Republican Party; its chairman, Jim Womack, is one of Page’s best-known campaign supporters and donors.
The disloyalty resolution points to an endorsement Berger made in a local judicial race in 2022. Berger publicly endorsed Superior Court Judge Ed Wilson, a Democrat, in his re-election campaign.
According to a news release at the time from Wilson’s campaign, Berger had known Wilson “for years” and said he’d done “an outstanding job” as a judge. The 3rd Congressional District GOP resolution says Berger should have endorsed Wilson’s Republican challenger, John Morris, who ultimately won (Wilson was appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper a few months later to a special Superior Court judge position).
But while the Wilson endorsement is the basis for the “party disloyalty” charge, the resolution also cites a more recent controversy: Berger’s support for a proposed ban on shrimp trawling.
“Senator Phil Berger wields significant influence over the legislative agenda, and under his leadership bills were advanced that sought to ban shrimp trawling and raw milk, measures that would have devastated industries that feed North Carolinians and Americans, inflicted harmful economic consequences on farming and fishing families, and stood in direct opposition to core Republican principles of limited government, economic freedom, and protecting the livelihoods of working citizens,” the resolution says.
Berger's campaign did not respond to an inquiry from WUNC about the resolution Monday.
The resolution itself doesn’t change Berger’s standing within his party, but it calls on the statewide N.C. Republican Party executive committee to take action, including that Berger “be denied any and all support from the Republican Party, including being barred from any and all official Republican Party and affiliated functions.”
The resolution is signed by 3rd Congressional District GOP chair Michele Nix, who is a former vice-chair of the state party who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2020.
The 3rd District organization, which includes coastal counties, also passed a resolution opposing the shrimp trawling ban in June. That Senate proposal was rejected by House Republicans. Berger said at the time that North Carolina is the only East Coast state that allows shrimp trawling, which he saw as an issue that has "needed attention for a long time."
Page has made the shrimp trawling ban a campaign issue, and he joined shrimpers at the legislature during protest events in June.
Page quickly tweeted about the “party disloyalty” resolution on Saturday evening.
The raw milk ban referenced in the anti-Berger resolution was ultimately removed from a Senate agriculture bill following opposition.
