It’s time for a fact check of North Carolina politics. A new ad accuses a Republican state senate candidate of criticizing President Trump’s immigration policy. The ad supports Senate leader Phil Berger over his GOP primary challenger, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. The ad includes a clip of Page from 2012 in which he said, “It is unrealistic to assume that 12 to 14 million people will just leave the United States.” Paul Specht of WRAL joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry for more.
Marshall Terry: Before diving into the ad, what's the bigger context of this race? Berger is widely seen as the most powerful politician in the state, but he's neck-and-neck in this primary, right?
Paul Specht: That's right. Phil Berger has been the Senate leader for more than 15 years now, and Sam Page decided to challenge him for what he calls local issues. While Berger may be one of the most accomplished Republican leaders in North Carolina history, certainly when it comes to state government and changing state policies, people in his district became upset when the state started considering a casino in the district.
The idea at the time was to stop people from going to Virginia and spending their money at casinos there. People did not like that. That leads us to where we are today, where Sam Page — longtime sheriff — alleging that he's more in touch with the people of the district than Senate leader Burger, who, of course, disputes that and says ‘that casino never happened. I've been responsive.’ There's a lot of money in this race. That's what we see with this third-party ad.
Terry: OK, the remarks by Sheriff Page in this ad were made several years before Donald Trump even announced he was running for President. Has Page supported Trump since then?
Specht: Oh, yes. This video comes from 2012. He was reading from a document put together by the National Sheriffs’ Association. If you go back and watch the video, you can hear him say the National Sheriffs’ Association recommends the following, and then he goes through a list. Then you hear the comment from the ad that it's unrealistic to assume that 12 to 14 million people will just leave the United States if asked.
That last part is cut out of the ad where Page says, “if asked.” That might make a difference to the viewers who see it. Sheriff Page has been one of Trump's most vocal supporters since he came on the scene. He co-founded “Sheriffs for Trump” in 2016. Even later that year, before Trump was elected, Page was quoted in The New York Times as a Trump supporter, saying, “I believe we need to remove all criminal offenders that are in this country illegally.”
Terry: Who is the group behind this ad, NC True Conservatives?
Specht: This is a third-party group, not directly affiliated with the candidates. They tend to support one of the candidates. This ad rightfully points out that President Donald Trump endorsed Phil Berger in this race, but then goes on to take this quote from Page from 2012 way out of context.
Terry: What has Page said about the ad?
Specht: He said that it completely misrepresents his views and that his support for Trump over the years shows that those remarks in the 2012 video do not reflect his feelings about Trump.
Terry: How did you rate the claim in this ad?
Specht: We rated it false. Even though Page said those words, they don't represent what the ad claims. He was not “busted” for criticizing Trump or his plan. He has come out in recent years and praised both Trump and his efforts to crack down on immigration. Most recently, when the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was passed, that sent billions of dollars to the Department of Homeland Security to increase the number of immigration agents and the amount of deportations. Page put on social media his support for that. In short, this ad just doesn't line up with what Page has actually said in recent years about the Trump administration's policies.
These fact checks are a collaboration between PolitiFact and WRAL.
