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Update 3/17/2026: On March 17, Berger requested a recount and filed election protests in his primary against Page.
Update 3/6/2026: On Friday, March 6, Rockingham County and Guilford County reported provisional ballot totals showing Page had a 23-vote lead over Berger, with some mail-in ballots still uncounted.
After all precincts reported results on March 3, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page led state Senate leader Phil Berger by two votes in the GOP primary, a virtual tie in one of the night’s most important races.
Page declared victory at his election party in Stokesdale. Berger, meanwhile, told supporters at an event in Reidsville that he’d reserve judgment until more results came in.
As things stand, the likeliest outcome is a recount.
On Friday, March 6, Rockingham County and Guilford County reported their outstanding provisional ballots. Page netted 30 votes in Rockingham, while Berger netted nine in Guilford. The results improved Page’s 2-vote lead on Election Night to a 23-vote lead.
After counting provisional ballots, Page had 13,136 votes to Berger’s 13,113—a difference of 0.08 percentage points. That margin remained after military and overseas mail-in ballots were counted and after counties canvassed their results on March 13 to ensure votes were properly counted.
If Berger and Page had been tied after the county canvass, they would have competed in a second primary, effectively a do-over election, because of a 1915 state law, North Carolina elections expert Gerry Cohen wrote on social media.
Because the two candidates weren’t tied and the race was still within 1 percentage point, the candidate who finished second had until noon on March 17 to request a recount with the State Board of Elections. Berger requested a recount that morning.
He also requested a partial hand recount of 217 “undervotes,” or ballots where no vote was recorded in the legislative contest, and three “overvotes,” or ballots with votes recorded for both candidates in the state Senate primary. And he submitted formal protests regarding 13 ballots, including eight belonging to unnamed Guilford County voters who he said may have been given a ballot without the Senate District 26 race on it.
History tells us that there could be multiple recounts and legal challenges that drag on for months. During this time, the candidates can accept unlimited contributions to their legal defense funds.
So who’s ultimately going to win this race? We might not know for a while.
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