NC Senate Leader Phil Berger, left, and Rockingham Co. Sheriff Sam Page are facing off in a primary for Berger's seat on Mar. 3, 2026. (Photo: NC Newsline)
Where is all the money coming from for the high stakes Republican primary fight between state Senate leader Phil Berger and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page?
The candidates have raised over two million dollars for their campaigns; it’s a lopsided split, with Berger so far raising 53 times as much as Page. But there’s even more money paying for mailers and ads from well-disguised groups backing Berger or Page. Who’s supplying that money?
Spoiler alert
For Berger, the money can be tracked back to the Republican State Leadership Committee and GOPAC – the same corporate-funded organizations that have routed an outsized share of their national funds into North Carolina to help Berger win key legislative, judicial and redistricting battles.
A little history
The closest parallel to today’s mystery-money blitz happened three decades ago when an unknown group called Farmers for Fairness began spending heavily in a midterm Republican primary contest.
In 1998, the hog industry was unhappy with the Republican majority in the NC House – and especially with homie, Duplin County Rep. Cindy Watson, a vocal opponent of mismanaged hog waste. Farmers for Fairness hired Carter Wrenn and began relentlessly attacking Cindy Watson’s character in the primary. It wound up spending over $2 million to defeat her and two other Republicans favoring hog regulation. Democrats regained the majority and chose Jim Black as House Speaker. He promptly appointed a hog industry favorite, Nurham Warwick of Sampson County, to chair the House Environment Committee.
It turned out Farmers for Fairness was bankrolled not by small farmers but by large companies led by Wendell Murphy and other hog barons. The group’s accountant said the companies could treat $2.6 million spent on “media buys” as a tax-deductible business expense because they were educational issue ads, not political campaign expenses.
That brings us to the mystery groups receiving attention in the 2026 Berger-Page slugfest.
Money opposing Berger
The two groups spending substantial, but unknown, amounts against Sen. Berger are “social welfare” 501(c)(4) organizations: NC Families for Prosperity and NC Partnership for Good Government. Because of election law changes by the Republican-led General Assembly, they can avoid filing disclosure reports if they (1) don’t coordinate operations with a candidate and (2) limit their activity to “issue advocacy” that stops short of directing people to vote for or against a candidate. We may learn little about their donors for months, if ever.
The two groups were incorporated in September 2025 and January 2026, respectively, by former IRS attorney Josh G. Starin, an Unaffiliated registered voter in Durham. Starin routinely casts a Democratic ballot in primaries; his state-reported campaign donations over 30 years add up to $151 to Democratic district attorney candidates.
Understandably, Phil Berger’s campaign accuses the two groups, plus a third mystery group, of being part of an effort by Democrats to unseat him; however, political insiders say the groups are being substantially helped by Republicans who were once Berger supporters. That third mystery group – Piedmont Accountability Coalition – may also avoid disclosure by limiting its activity to “issue advocacy.”
Money opposing Page
The main mystery group supporting Berger is NC True Conservatives. It organized in September 2025 as an independent expenditure super PAC. Its treasurer is Larry Shaheen, a Charlotte political consultant, attorney for developers, UNC-Charlotte trustee, and prolific Republican donor. Three months ago, Shaheen wouldn’t reveal the group’s donors to WUNC but did announce, “By the time we’re done, there shouldn’t be a Republican in that district who will consider voting for” Page.
Last week, a disclosure report for NC True Conservatives revealed it had received $2,850,000 and spent $2,776,016. Nearly $723,000 went to consultants Martin & Blaine, aka the Differentiators, for mailers; and $2,045,000 went to Strategic Media Delivery LLC for advertising. Jim Blaine and Charles Ray Martin are former staffers for Berger and the Republican Senate Caucus. Ray Martin is the “managing member” of Strategic Media Delivery LLC.
NC True Conservatives’ report lists two donors: Citizens for a Better North Carolina in Raleigh gave $450,000 and Good Government Coalition Inc. in Springfield, VA, gave $2,400,000. But where do these front groups get their money?
Following the money
It turns out Citizens for a Better North Carolina got $5,750,000 from the Good Government Coalition (GGC) in 2024, so essentially all of NC True Conservatives’ money flows in from the GGC. In fact, since 2020, the Virginia-based Good Government Coalition has focused almost 90% of its funding on North Carolina politics. It supplied 91% of the $31 million that Citizens for a Better North Carolina and its affiliates raised for attack ads, mailers, etc. to win crucial legislative and judicial elections.
So where does Good Government Coalition Inc. get its money? Soon after it began in 2020, it received $1,500,000 from the NC Chamber of Commerce, reflecting its Tar Heel orientation. Since then, 94% of its funds have come from the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) and GOPAC, the two big national funnels for collecting and channeling money to Republican state politics.
Peeling back another layer, disclosure reports reveal that RSLC and GOPAC get about 90% of their contributions from corporations and trade associations like PhRMA and the US Chamber of Commerce. The top 20 donors since 2020 include tobacco giants Reynolds America (ranked #1, giving $10.8 million) and Altria (#6, $3.9 million), Dominion Energy (#11, $2.3 million) and Duke Energy (#17, $1.8 million). Illustrating the twisted path of mystery money, the Berger-allied Carolina Partnership for Reform (#8) sent $3.4 million from its hidden donors to RSLC, no doubt slated for return to the state.
Phil Berger is one of the longest serving advisory board members of both the Republican State Leadership Committee and GOPAC. House Speaker Destin Hall is also a member, replacing Tim Moore. Importantly, more than a fifth of the millions that the two organizations have contributed directly to intermediaries for state Republican campaigns across the country has gone to the North Carolina-focused Good Government Coalition.
There are other national Republican vehicles that funnel millions to states for presidential and Congressional campaigns. But when it comes to state legislative and judicial campaigns, North Carolina has received an exceptional share of Republican money and attention, which demonstrates that Phil Berger is not only powerful inside North Carolina; he is also a power player in national Republican circles.
Bob Hall is the former executive director of Democracy North Carolina.
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