RALEIGH (March 6, 2026) – We saw some refreshing examples this week of North Carolina voters holding their elected officials accountable.
In the premier primary election in the state, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page led state Senate leader Phil Berger by exactly two votes – 13,077 to 13,075 – in a high-dollar challenge for Berger’s seat representing Rockingham and Guilford counties.1
So for starters, don’t let anyone tell you your vote doesn’t count. Ask Phil Berger or Sam Page about that.
That race isn’t over, though. There are still 189 provisional ballots – those cast by voters who couldn’t provide proper ID or went to the wrong precinct – to be counted.2 It’s likely that one of the candidates will ask for a recount.
Page has already raised questions about the impartiality of State Auditor Dave Boliek, who appoints the State Board of Elections and has campaigned for Berger.3
And the whole mess could still end up in the courts.
Page contends that Berger – widely considered the most powerful politician in the state – has lost touch with the people of his district after 25 years in Raleigh.
And even if Berger manages to win, he saw how Page tapped into voters’ resentment of the Berger family’s dominance in state and local politics; of Berger’s efforts in 2023 to bring a casino to conservative, rural Rockingham County; and of the abysmal state of teacher pay in North Carolina.4
DEMOCRATIC voters exercised some party discipline of their own and held their officials accountable as well. They unseated three Democratic legislators who had collaborated with Republicans, particularly on overrides of Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s vetoes:
•Rep. Carla Cunningham in Mecklenburg County;
•Rep. Nasif Majeed in Mecklenburg County;
•Rep. Shelly Willingham in Edgecombe, Martin and Bertie counties;
•And they beat back an attempt by former Rep. Michael Wray – a Democrat who also collaborated with legislative Republicans and was beaten in 2024 – to regain his seat representing Halifax and Northampton counties.5
SIX EDUCATORS who changed parties to run as Republicans for legislative seats in heavily gerrymandered districts – a creative effort mounted by a group called NC Educators on the Ballot – were condemned by the state Republican Party.
All of them lost in the primary elections.6
AND IN Forsyth County, where the school board inexplicably allowed the school system to create a $46 million budget shortfall in 2024-25, three of the six school board members who ran for re-election – really? – were defeated on Tuesday.7
These were just the primaries, though. Please continue to hold your elected officials accountable in the general election in November.
If you want better public schools, you have to vote – and vote for the people who support public schools.
1 https://www.wral.com/news/nccapitol/berger-page-gop-primary-nc-senate-26th-district-rockingham-county-march-3/
2 https://greensboro.com/news/local/government-politics/elections/article_eb7a616b-7e47-4850-9687-2ce12326340a.html#tracking-source=home-top-story; https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article314938789.html.
3 https://www.wral.com/news/nccapitol/nc-senate-district-26-two-vote-margin-page-calls-auditor-recusal-march-2026/.
4 https://greensboro.com/opinion/editorial/article_47b4448f-333f-44c7-9dce-070af868d05e.html; https://journalnow.com/news/local/government-politics/elections/article_1df5b46c-871c-5e0d-8535-6705ac5882e5.html#tracking-source=home-top-story.
5 https://www.wral.com/news/nccapitol/nc-primary N-democrats-oust-lawmakers-overrode-stein-vetoes-march-2026/; https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article314926561.html.
6 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article314899227.html.
7 https://journalnow.com/news/local/education/article_7e682aed-1bec-4fac-8282-a7bf9ec901f0.html; https://journalnow.com/news/local/education/article_e41de94f-1a2b-4355-a291-3919442c5474.html.
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