Phil Berger, King of North Carolina
Published December 5, 2024
In his reelection bid, Republican State Senator Phil Berger of Rockingham county, President Pro-tem of North Carolina's State Senate, received 67,000 votes. Governor-elect Josh Stein received 3,069,506 votes. Yet despite this gargantuan discrepancy in magnitude, Berger clearly regards himself as the senior partner in their emerging rivalry. Berger’s grandiose image of himself shows an arrogance that has become one of the most galling forces in North Carolina politics.
For a time in the early 2020s, political observers liked to imagine Berger as the more ethical counterpart to the devious Tim Moore. This flattering illusion stemmed from the fact that Berger was a bit coyer about abusing the legislative process. When Moore called surprise votes, Berger—a good senator, after all—would let the tea cool in the saucer for a moment before ramming the bill through. While limited solely to process, this slightly greater sense of restraint allowed North Carolina politicos exhausted by the legislature’s abuses to believe they had a white knight in the President Pro Tempore.
Berger must have enjoyed these accolades. But his arrogance has long been evident. Claiming the majority after years of being a shunned, irrelevant outsider, Berger adopted a strange hybrid of grievance and entitlement. He felt smoldering resentments towards Democrats, journalists, bureaucrats, and, especially, the North Carolina Association of Educators. These were the “liberal elitists” (to appropriate a favorite Berger insult) who had disrespected his Republican Party for generations. With an inferiority complex reflective of his working-class roots, he moved to punish the snobs on the other side of the tracks.
Berger canceled a lease duly ratified by the liberal city of Raleigh. He busted the NCAE “union.” He released an endless slew of press statements containing invective like his rant against “the left’s political correctness mob.” All of this took place early in Berger’s tenure, when he was essentially venting his spleen against a former majority his crew had defeated only a couple of years before. But the aggressiveness that defined his politics would eventually flower into an arrogation of political powers to which this country lawyer, little known outside the Raleigh Beltline, had no right whatsoever.
The veteran North Carolina political commentator Rob Schofield once noted that Berger had been “a reasonable and moderate small-town burgher” before moving in the Pro Tem’s office. But Berger now roams the stage like a strutting caudillo. Berger likely wields more power than his predecessor Marc Basnight, the venerable Senate Democrat who probably exceeded Governor Mike Easley in political influence. The President Pro Tem has certainly thrown off any inhibitions about imposing his agenda with brute force. With the grotesquely misnamed “Helene Relief Bill,” he is enacting policies that will essentially force Attorney General-elect Jeff Jackson to govern like a Republican. Berger is giving himself powers that will make him the state’s de facto governor and attorney general, and with his son and namesake “Junior” on the State Supreme Court Berger père also has his fingers deep in the judiciary.
He’s a king, in other words. And this is a story of continuity, not transformation. Berger came into office angry and has taken it out on basically everyone else in the political establishment. Berger has made himself into a one-man empire. To bastardize Louis XIV, l’etat, c’est Phil. Phil is the state of North Carolina. Everyone else just needs to sit down, be quiet, and obey.
For a time in the early 2020s, political observers liked to imagine Berger as the more ethical counterpart to the devious Tim Moore. This flattering illusion stemmed from the fact that Berger was a bit coyer about abusing the legislative process. When Moore called surprise votes, Berger—a good senator, after all—would let the tea cool in the saucer for a moment before ramming the bill through. While limited solely to process, this slightly greater sense of restraint allowed North Carolina politicos exhausted by the legislature’s abuses to believe they had a white knight in the President Pro Tempore.
Berger must have enjoyed these accolades. But his arrogance has long been evident. Claiming the majority after years of being a shunned, irrelevant outsider, Berger adopted a strange hybrid of grievance and entitlement. He felt smoldering resentments towards Democrats, journalists, bureaucrats, and, especially, the North Carolina Association of Educators. These were the “liberal elitists” (to appropriate a favorite Berger insult) who had disrespected his Republican Party for generations. With an inferiority complex reflective of his working-class roots, he moved to punish the snobs on the other side of the tracks.
Berger canceled a lease duly ratified by the liberal city of Raleigh. He busted the NCAE “union.” He released an endless slew of press statements containing invective like his rant against “the left’s political correctness mob.” All of this took place early in Berger’s tenure, when he was essentially venting his spleen against a former majority his crew had defeated only a couple of years before. But the aggressiveness that defined his politics would eventually flower into an arrogation of political powers to which this country lawyer, little known outside the Raleigh Beltline, had no right whatsoever.
The veteran North Carolina political commentator Rob Schofield once noted that Berger had been “a reasonable and moderate small-town burgher” before moving in the Pro Tem’s office. But Berger now roams the stage like a strutting caudillo. Berger likely wields more power than his predecessor Marc Basnight, the venerable Senate Democrat who probably exceeded Governor Mike Easley in political influence. The President Pro Tem has certainly thrown off any inhibitions about imposing his agenda with brute force. With the grotesquely misnamed “Helene Relief Bill,” he is enacting policies that will essentially force Attorney General-elect Jeff Jackson to govern like a Republican. Berger is giving himself powers that will make him the state’s de facto governor and attorney general, and with his son and namesake “Junior” on the State Supreme Court Berger père also has his fingers deep in the judiciary.
He’s a king, in other words. And this is a story of continuity, not transformation. Berger came into office angry and has taken it out on basically everyone else in the political establishment. Berger has made himself into a one-man empire. To bastardize Louis XIV, l’etat, c’est Phil. Phil is the state of North Carolina. Everyone else just needs to sit down, be quiet, and obey.
Alexander H. Jones is a Policy Analyst with Carolina Forward. He lives in Carrboro. Have feedback? Reach him at alex@carolinaforward.org.
