November 14, 2025
CJ Pearson is rising as the face of the young Black MAGA movement, and aiming to attract more young voters.
CJ Pearson, the Black Gen Z Republican rising star, aims to draw more young voters to the MAGA movement.
With his new podcast, Family Matters, Pearson, 23, is positioning himself as a leading voice for the next generation of Black conservatives. As Democrats criticize Trump’s policies as harmful to Black communities, Pearson and other right-leaning Black creators are courting voters with the viral-style approach popularized by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, aiming to shift support from historically Democratic strongholds.
“Right now, my priority is simply doing all I can to win young people over to our side and help us win the culture war because politics is downstream from culture,” Pearson told USA Today.
This includes stirring controversy by highlighting the interracial marriages of Democratic figures such as Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Rep. Ilhan Omar, former CNN anchor Don Lemon, and former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“Have y’all ever noticed that Black people on the left love to hate white people in the streets but love them in the sheets?” Pearson asked his listeners.
While Pearson has built a massive social media following and other Black Republicans hold influential roles in the Trump administration, conservative Black candidates like NFL star Herschel Walker and former North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson have struggled in statewide races. Pearson believes strong fundraising and strategic messaging could bridge the gap.
“Being a Black Republican is not enough to win an election, so you got to actually have a few other things going for you as well,” Pearson said.
Political strategist and fellow MAGA Republican, Janiyah Thomas, 27, agrees with Pearson in that Republicans running for office need to do more grassroots work.
“We definitely need to dive in and try to make a difference electorally, not just on the internet,” she said. “I mean, the internet is great, and I do think you reach a lot of people, but it’s important to be on the ground. There’s work to be done.”
Pearson’s popularity continues to rise. The Georgia native was named to the Time100 Creators list in July and featured in The Washington Post’s Sept. 2 story, “The MAGA kids are not all White,” published a week before Charlie Kirk’s death. He hosts gatherings for his cause, appears on Fox News, and socializes with Black Democratic peers—“the good ones,” he clarifies.
Pearson, a Georgia native, also actively promotes conservative online culture and defends his party’s pro-Trump, anti-DEI stance. At 23, he could address one of his party’s challenges in three years, when he reaches the minimum age to run for Congress.
“This is a country that has always given so much to me,” he said. “I want to give back to it one day as well. What that looks like, whether it’s elected office or something else, I don’t know.”
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