Among the ranks of North Carolina’s law enforcement, no individual has been more vocally supportive of President Donald Trump’s stance on immigration than the cowboy hat-adorned sheriff of Rockingham County, Sam Page. His influence spans private discussions, social media platforms and public media interactions, where he has helped shift the perception of migrants, drawing a correlation with criminal activities, even to the extent of linking them with terrorism. Over half of his 26-year tenure as sheriff, Page has actively endorsed several contentious enforcement propositions.
In the year 2011, Page passionately appealed to federal authorities to classify Mexican drug cartels as terrorist entities. This would enable the mobilization of military resources in the fight against them. This proposal resonated with the sentiments expressed in President Trump’s inauguration speech, indicating his intentions to proceed with terrorist classification for these cartels.
Sheriff Page positions himself as the primary advocate for the ideology that each and every sheriff essentially operates as a border patroller due to the flow of illicit substances across the southern frontier. Beyond this, he has even proposed measures like removing certain amenities, such as television and smoking rights, from prisoners. His stringent beliefs and tough-on-crime stance have led him to successfully secure the sheriff’s office on seven occasions.
A legislative proposal that he strenuously supported, House Bill 10, aimed at compelling full cooperation of every North Carolina sheriff with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), became law in November. This bill followed an initial iteration presented five years earlier. Along with this legislative victory, his chosen candidate secured the presidential seat.
Shortly after these events, residents found themselves receiving inquiries from an anonymous poll conducting entity, investigating a potential political race between Berger and Page for the Senate position. The projected results, disclosed to The News & Observer, placed Page 30 points ahead. The implementation of this law may nudge more sheriffs towards routinely setting up driver’s license checkpoints and lodging traffic offenders into incarceration.
In addition, it may likely lead to an uptick in workplace raids. Given this backdrop, local authorities who take exception to mass deportation initiatives might be less motivated to voice their opposition due to the heavily enforced context. However, they could potentially steer patrol officers towards issuing tickets instead of making arrests in certain scenarios, like when the driver is found to be without a valid license during a standard traffic stop.
Page, now 67, understood the power of harnessing the media for publicity early in his political journey. In his electoral race, he labeled his rival, one of the state’s longest-serving sheriffs, as being ‘political’ and pledged to reinstate deputies whom he claimed were unfairly dismissed for their association with him. To this day, corresponding records have yet to be disclosed.
After an unsuccessful campaign for the position of Rockingham County sheriff in 1994, where he stood as a moderate Democrat, a shift in political alignment and strategy were implemented. In fact, he changed party affiliation and sought election advice from Gerald Hege, a notable North Carolina sheriff infamous for his ‘tough on crime’ approach. This counsel came from neighboring Davidson County.
In his victorious 1998 campaign for sheriff of a predominantly rural region north of Greensboro, Page courted substantial media exposure to boost his visibility. During this period, he was embroiled personally in the debate concerning a casino, while running for the position of lieutenant governor at the same time.
Notably, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently convened a special legislative session, with the intention of developing policy amendments in coherence with Trump’s migration-related agendas. This did not go unnoticed by residents of the Triad area, who soon started receiving calls from an unknown pollster probing into a feasible electoral contest involving Berger and Page for Berger’s Senate position.