He started blogging about politics at age 8. Now C.J. Pearson is one of the GOP’s most influential voices on youth outreach — and he has a lot to say about where the party is winning, where it’s falling short, and why the midterms are a battle between good and evil.
The former RNC youth co-chair joins “The Sitdown with Alex Swoyer” to talk faith, family and the fight for America’s future.
[SWOYER] C.J. Pearson has been an influential voice for the youth vote, supporting various campaigns in 2016 before deciding to back Donald Trump.
First, can you tell me a little bit about your history? What at age eight motivated you to get involved in politics? Was your family influential in that?
[PEARSON] Definitely. I had an incredible second grade teacher named Mrs. Best. It was the 2008 presidential election and I was in the second grade, so I was about six or seven years old. Mrs. Best had an expectation for us to do what every good citizen in the country at the time was doing. And we were going to research the candidates. And at the end of that week, we were going to cast our vote for who we thought should be president.
And I’m going to age myself a little bit here, as much as a 23-year-old can. But I remember sitting on the floor of my grandmother’s bedroom and watching Candy Crowley moderate the presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. And, you know, I was a little kid. So I had no idea what health care reform was, what Iran was, where it was. But I knew that what they were talking about was very, very important.
Now, my grandfather served 20 years in the military, in the U.S. Army. He was a Signal Corps officer. And because of that, I always grew up respecting our country. I grew up around all these military flags, all the memorabilia of his service, and sort of respected that a good deal. And because of that, I voted for John McCain. And I came back home as excited as any young kid who’s done a new thing, to tell my grandmother who I had voted for. And I remember distinctly — and she hates when I tell this story — when she looked me in the eye and she said, “Oh, you must think that you’re white.”
Now, I had no idea what that meant, because identity politics was something that, of course, was not on the mind of a child. But I would come to know what it meant. And so after that, I was just eager to understand, like, where did I fall on the ideological spectrum? What did I actually believe? And I remember watching Fox News, CNN, MSNBC — which I still have a little bit of PTSD from — and trying to figure out, what are my values?
[SWOYER] So is your grandma, was she a Democrat?
[PEARSON] She is a Democrat.
[SWOYER] So the dinner conversation is going to be very interesting at your house.
[PEARSON] Always lively. But I remember watching Fox News and Sean Hannity, and I was like, okay, these are the conversations that actually sound like my dining room table. Because while they were voting Democrat, they were staunch Christians. They were people who had conservative values, but because society had told them for quite some time that because of the color of their skin, they’re supposed to vote one way and not the other, they just simply believed it. And thankfully, because I got involved at such a young age, I hadn’t been indoctrinated with that viewpoint or those beliefs. And so, because of that, it wasn’t too hard for me to embrace the conservative values that I’ve been championing ever since.
[SWOYER] Yeah. And one of the things — I know you grew up in Georgia and you’re passionate about Georgia politics. So I wanted to ask you specifically, what do you make of the U.S. Senate race there? I know it was a Republican congressman — is it Mike Collins? — who now is going to face off with Jon Ossoff. What’s your take there? Any other races that we should be monitoring?
[PEARSON] You know, what I tell folks when it comes to Georgia is, if we save Georgia, we save America. You know, Jon Ossoff is a very cunning politician. People call Hakeem Jeffries “Temu Obama.” I think Jon Ossoff may be giving him a run for his money there in terms of the way he seeks to emulate his mannerisms.
But what I’ll tell you is that I think we have great candidates up and down the ballot in Georgia. Rick Jackson, of course, who won the gubernatorial primary there as a self-funder. Many people have called him Georgia’s Donald Trump. He’s a guy who had become a billionaire — was in the foster care system as a child and then built an incredible international business.
And of course, we have Mike Collins, who has been a champion for things like the Laken Riley Act, which — you know, he’s a guy who actually has had legislation signed by two presidents, both Joe Biden and President Trump. And so I think it speaks to the fact that he’s going to be able to make inroads with communities of people that, you know, for a long time we haven’t been able to do so.
But Georgia is an interesting thing because we have so many people who have come into the state fleeing places like California and other liberal states.
[SWOYER] New York.
[PEARSON] Unfortunately, yeah, are still voting the same way that brought about the policies that prompted their fleeing, right? And so we have a lot of work to do in terms of reaching young people, reaching minority voters, which, you know, I’m committed to doing. What I oftentimes say to folks in the party is that we can’t just preach to the choir. We’ve got to do the hard work to grow the congregation. And I think that’s exactly what we’re going to do in the midterms this cycle.
[SWOYER] Bigger picture, in terms of the Senate — there’s a lot of questions I get about — I cover the Supreme Court — you know, a Supreme Court vacancy, obviously the upper chamber is very important there. I think it would be Democrats need to gain four seats, Republicans can only lose two. What do you predict seeing now? What are you hearing about the Senate? I know Republicans have a keen interest.
[PEARSON] Yeah. And when it comes to the Senate, I actually feel really good because I think you look at Graham Platner, of course, who’s running in Maine, who’s trying to be this pseudo alpha male with a Nazi tattoo and all, who is trying to moderate his image to voters in Maine. I don’t think they’re going to buy it.
And I think you look at James “Talafreako” over in Texas, who is a vegan running in Texas and a guy who, you know, seems to have rented a girlfriend for the purposes of his campaign.
[SWOYER] He’s confused about, like, God is non-binary?
[PEARSON] I think he’s confused about a lot of things, right? But I think that, you know, the people of Texas will see through that. Ken Paxton, of course, has been a longtime champion of President Trump. And, you know, what was so interesting about that primary, actually, is, I remember hearing all these people saying, “Ken Paxton can’t win, Ken Paxton can’t win.” And I was like, the guy’s attorney general. He’s won multiple statewide elections.
[SWOYER] And has a really high rating as attorney general. People like what they see him doing in terms of the litigation.
[PEARSON] Exactly. And it’s like, at the end of the day, you can talk about his personal failings or whatever it may be. But at the end of the day, people are electing someone who they believe are going to be a fighter for them and are going to champion Texas values. And Ken Paxton has done that throughout his entire career.
[SWOYER] Yeah. And he really had support. I will say, being from Texas, the MAGA base was behind Paxton.
[PEARSON] Dan Patrick was a huge supporter of those.
[SWOYER] And one of the things that’s so important, too, this is a midterm election. This is when the base matters. You need to make sure, you know, that they get out. So I thought that was an interesting one to watch. Obviously, my home state, so I had a close eye on that.
What do Republicans need to do to be successful for the midterms with younger voters?
[PEARSON] Well, number one, broadly, I think we need to hold the feet to the fire of these state legislatures that have now been given a golden opportunity to redistrict and undo these racist maps that were drawn to basically guarantee Black congressional districts. There’s no such thing as a Black or White congressional district. If you were advocating for White congressional districts, you would be called a racist. But for some reason, when the shoe’s on the other foot, no one bats an eye.
So I think all these Southern states that have the opportunity to redraw their maps absolutely need to do so. It was unfortunate this past week we saw in Georgia where the legislature opted not to redraw those maps because they’re fearful of some type of backlash from the electorate.
Again, the Supreme Court ruled these maps are unconstitutional — do the right thing, redraw the maps, and actually right that wrong.
Watch the video for the full conversation.
Read more: Conservative influencer C.J. Pearson tells GOP politicians to join TikTok: ‘Young voters are there’
Correction: A previous version of this transcript incorrectly described C.J. Pearson’s involvement with the RNC. He is a former youth co-chair.
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