July 28, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode, CJ Pearson discusses the dynamics of young voters' support for Trump and the GOP, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and engagement through social media platforms like TikTok. He highlights the strategies used to mobilize young voters and the challenges faced in maintaining their support. Pearson also reflects on the impact of the COVID generation on political views and the necessity for young conservatives to be active and courageous in expressing their beliefs. It's a Numbers Game is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to a Numbers game with Ryan Gerdusky. I
am your host. Happy Monday, everybody. Before I get to
the main topic of this show, I want to talk
about some gossip I heard, like from DC circles about
the Epstein files for a second, and this is not
like the actual file itself or you know what's in it,
(00:21):
but it's the background of Pam Bondi before she did
that whole binder incident at the White House with those influencers.
So I talked to a bunch of people who were
there and who have been in and around her orbit
since then. So the meeting of those influencers was supposed
to be like this giving access to new media thing
(00:44):
where a bunch of cabinet secretaries and the president, the
vice president got to meet with these influencers and whatnot.
It wasn't supposed to be anything to do with Epstein
and Bondi walked in with all these binders full of
nothing and was like this is part one, and YadA, YadA, yad,
and there was a picture that everyone saw and basically
made story go mainstream. Well, I've done my homework, and
(01:04):
I've called the people, and I've called a lot of
people in and around her orbit because I just wanted
to know why, like what was the main thing going
on to fuel this incident that has made this story
live on for like a month now. And there's two
things I can point to. First, Pambondy allegedly openly hates
(01:27):
Representative Anna Polina Luna from Florida, comes from from Florida,
to the point that she was complaining about her and
saying from people around her, saying I can't stand her
and I hate her while using the female bathroom facilities
in the west and the White House. She was complaining
(01:47):
about her there, she complained about in the hallway, she
was saying out loud. And Anna Polina Luna, for those
who don't know, has been trying to push this Epstein
stuff for some time, for quite a few months, even
before the Binder incident. And I think I'm not sure
about this. I shouldn't even say it, but I think
there's like beef that goes back to Florida. But I'm
(02:10):
not exactly sure. But the prodding and the pushing by
Luna over the Epstein file, BONDI thought she was going
to steal her thunder by bringing out these binders and
it completely was mishandled and has caused a backlash that
is like the never ending story. The second reason, and
(02:31):
this came to me from several consultants who I know,
and this is a real curveball, was Bondi allegedly was
trying to build relationships with these influencers because she's thinking
about running for president in twenty twenty eight. Now, I
spoke to someone who's very in the know, and they
(02:54):
said that she's had conversations about running for the White
House in three years. And this is the thinking in
DC circles, right. Obviously, Vice President JD. Vance and Senator
of Marc ro Rubia sorry, Secretary Marco Rubio are in
the you know, the favorites to be the next nominee,
with the edge obviously going to Vance, but Rubio is
very very well liked and respected. Well, there's this idea
(03:15):
in Washington circles, in political circles, that there is an
inevitability that we're going to have another woman on the
ticket eventually, if not this year, if not starting in
twenty twenty eight, maybe in twenty thirty two, there will
be a female vice president on the ballot or female
president on the ballot. Republicans obviously only had one female
(03:36):
president ever vice president nominee ever in two thousand and eight,
and Democrats have had them four times in nineteen eighty four,
twenty sixteen, twenty twenty, and twenty twenty four. So a
bunch of Republican women are trying to figure out the
way to own the female lane basically in the next election,
to be a female candidate like Nicki Haley was Nicki Haley.
(03:59):
For as much as everyone dogs her and says how
terrible she was, she was the first woman. I mean,
credit goes to where it's due. She was the very
first woman Republican nominee candidate ever in a primary to
win a county and to win a state. So she
broke that barrier. So the idea and the thinking is
if they could be the nominee to win a bunch
(04:20):
of states, maybe not win the nomination, but do well enough,
they can then secure a top cabin position like secretary
of State or the vice presidency and then run from there.
Like basically, it's like a two to three step series
to break that glass ceiling, and a number of Republican women,
like allegedly Elis Stephonic Christy Nome and Pam Bondy are
(04:45):
talking about how to own the female lane. Is that
gonna work? I don't really know. Can Pam Bondi come
back from this horrendous pr stunt? I don't necessarily think so,
but you know, stranger things have happened. Donald Trump made
a huge comeback, much bigger than this. So is it possible. Yeah,
it's likely. I don't think so, but someone is preparing
(05:07):
to run to own this female lane and that will
be very interesting to keep an eye out on. Okay,
now for the main topic of the show, I want
to talk about political identity because a poll came out
from Pew Research and it found that forty six percent
of Americans identify as Republicans and forty five percent identify
as Democrats. You may think that one point lead is
(05:30):
not much, but it comes in stark contrast from two
thousand and eight, when Democrats held a twelve point lead
over Republicans. Remember that was the period of the Bush
had sunk, the economy in the Iraq War wasn't going well.
Pew has continued this polling throughout the entire last two decades,
and this is the best Republicans have ever had it
besides two twenty twenty four. Twenty twenty four was when
(05:52):
the Republicans for the first time ever took the lead
by a point, and they've maintained that lead by a point.
Comparing the number twenty twenty to twenty twenty five. Right,
comparing those that five year change, Republicans have made a
three point gain among men and now hold an overall
fourteen point lead. Democrats, however, have actually shrunk their lead
(06:14):
with women, and they have a ten point lead with
women according to the Pew Research Poll. But the most
interesting part was not necessarily sex or race. It was age,
specifically among eighteen to twenty nine year olds. Republicans have
seen their support among that demographic group over the last
five years increased by six points, while Democrats have seen
(06:35):
their support fall by six points. Democrats at one point
had an eighteen point lead among young voters I was
in twenty twenty. Their lead now is just six points,
and there's a sharp gender divide. Men between eighteen to
twenty nine support Republicans by eighteen points, while women between
eighteen and twenty nine support Democrat Democrats by twenty one points.
(06:58):
That is like what you see in places South Korea
where this youth divide by gender is so extreme and
it's actually pulling even further in the other direction. Go
back to twenty to twenty twenty four election, right when
we saw all these high profile, really incredible studies of
how young people cast their ballads. In the Trump versus
(07:19):
Harris election, voters under thirty supported Harris, but not by
anywhere near the numbers that previous Democrats had enjoyed. In
the Catalyst, there is a democrat analysis firm, they said,
Catalyst said that Harris had a ten point lead, Pew
Research said that she had a nineteen point lead, and
David Shore, the very smart progressive data analysts, said that
(07:42):
Trump's support among young white men under twenty two was
the strongest support he enjoyed from any demographic group, and
he won white women under twenty and he won non
white men under twenty. So this question is right, a
young people's stay Republican or was this just a protest
(08:03):
against Biden subsequently Harris? Because while this Pew Research number
is very strong for Republicans, and while the twenty twenty
four election was strong for Republicans, there are a number
of subsequent polls that have come out in recent weeks
showing Republican support among young people cratering. And you've may
seen this on social media or if you watch cable news,
they'll say, you know, X, Y and Z poll says
(08:26):
that Trump support among this part of the coalition, of
that part has collapsed. So what I did was I
aggregated all the polling numbers for you guys, right, I judged.
I looked at twelve recent public polls that made their
cross tabs available to look at how Trump's numbers were.
Were the voters under the age of thirty Among these
twelve polls, and they include polls like Atlas, Intel and
(08:47):
Quantus Insight, which nailed the twenty twenty four elections. Are
not all fake polls that always underperformed Trump. These are
some of the most accurate polsters in the last election
that said Trump was going to win. They found that
the overall average for voters under thirty so that Trump
had a thirty three percent approval rating and a sixty
one percent disapproval rating. That's that's a significant number. That
(09:09):
is a twenty eight point negative approval rating for Trump
among young voters. What is causing this trend is the
interesting question. No, Trump's numbers are down with every group,
as our most presidents when they're serving, right, Because when
you're campaigning, it's just all wonderful ideas. It's all I'm
going to promise you this, and I promise you that
I'm going to do this, and then reality sets in
(09:31):
and everyone's like, oh, you know, the president hasn't done
what I need at the speed I need them to
my liking with the media praising him, and America is
a very fickle country, and we want things very quickly,
and we want things how we like them, and all
that feeds into that. Right. Well, first, Trump's decline with
gen Z is only slightly larger than his decline overall
(09:55):
with a national average, right because once again, we're all fickle,
we all like things that we like them, and there
is declining among everybody. Now. Doesn't mean, though, that this
demographic that voted for Trump in record breaking numbers, especially
men under twenty, will they support Republicans in the next
(10:16):
November election in the midterms. There's not a lot of
polling on the midterm elections yet. I mean, we're really
early early, so I wouldn't expect it. But right now,
given what is out there. Republicans have a negative twenty
rating with the youngest voter demographic, which is better than
Trump overall, but not by much, but it is better
than Trump. So it would suggest that although they do
(10:39):
not like Trump, and I don't have the exact reasoning
for why they are disliking Trump, although it's probably you know,
that everything hasn't happened to their liking as immediately as
they do, or they you know, are inundated with negative
media or social media about him and that's effected their opinions.
It doesn't seem like they are running back home to Democrats,
(11:01):
and I was curious as to does that mean that
this is a permanent shift Emerson, which is a pretty
decent pole they've got. They've become much better polster than
they used to be able to say that. Emerson did
a hypothetical matchup of the twenty twenty eight election with
JD Vance versus Gavin Newsom, Pee Pudage and AOC. JD
(11:21):
beat all the candidates head to head, right with allan overall,
not just any specific demographic, but when you look at
young voters, JDA basically tied everyone except for AOC. AOC
ran away with it, And I wonder as you see
the Mandani campaign grow in New York, as you see
(11:43):
other young progressives really get active and take the mantle
from the Nancy Pelosis and take the mantle from the
Amala Harris's and the Joe Bidens, is that going to
be their answer to young people who feel disenfranchised right now,
or feel like Trump hasn't met their standards, or feel
like it's their job to be angry because social media
feeds them that an algorithm. I don't know. I think
(12:06):
that that's really what we have to wait and see.
I think their question is, is the Pew Research estimates
right where young men are you know, basically permanently left
the Democratic Party and they are the party of the
Republicans vote men under thirty, or you know, have the
polls of the last few weeks shown signs that young
people that twenty twenty four was a fluke and young
(12:27):
people are right back to the Democrats. That's the question
we're going to see going forward in this upcoming election
and the twenty twenty four election or twenty twenty eight
election as a whole. But that's really the question over
the next eighteen months. My guest this week is one
of those young people who have been a vocal supporter
President Trump and has used social media to organize for them.
(12:48):
His interview is coming up next, Say tuned. CJ. Pearson
is the co chair of the GP Youth Advisory Council.
At twenty two years old, he may Time Magazine's Top
one hundred creators, and his parties in Washington, d C.
Have become brand The inauguration became infamous when New York
Magazine entitled at the Cruel Kids Club. I know they
(13:10):
meant that as an insult, but it was iconic. CJ.
Thank you for being here.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Ryan, Thanks so much for Rabbitman. Good to see you, okay, CJ.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
President Trump received a record breaking support among young voters
in twenty twenty four, especially among young men. What do
you contribute that to?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I think authenticity. I think the president, you know, was
very intentional about meeting young.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Voters where they were.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
But also too he didn't try to change himself or
become a chameleon based on who he was talking to.
You know, every time Kamala Harris sat down with a
podcaster or a late night television show.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
You didn't know if she was Jamaica and Mexican or
whatever else.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
But when you know, when President Trump went on a podcast,
he talked about cocaine, He talked about his celebrity friends,
from growing up in the city of New York and
being a real estate titan. People ask me all the time,
you know, how did President Trump win the bro vote?
He won the bro vote by being a bro like
unapolished himself.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
And I think the results speak for them.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yeah. David Shore, who's a progressive data analysis data scientist,
I'm not sure if you've read his stuff, but he was.
His finding was that young white men under the age
of twenty two were the most Republican group in the
country for like I think the first time ever. How
did you or how did the GOP in a larger sense,
help effectively mobilize young people for that election?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
You know, I think going into the election, we knew
that we were gonna have to turn out low propensity
voters if we're really going to get the president across
the finish line, right, And I think the podcast strategy,
which you know, hackxburg Switzers there's a lot of credit for,
was a critical piece of the puzzle in that right
because like these low preensit voters are not watching Fox News,
they're not watching CNN, but they are watching Theo Vonne,
they are watching Andrew Schultz, and they are you know,
(14:51):
watching Busting with the Boys on parstool. And so the
president going on these platforms and kind of taking his
message in a place where they oftentimes wouldn't expect to
hear them or wouldn't you know, want to hear them there,
but kind of making them was incredibly effective in that sense.
But also too, I think that the president's just use
an embrace of social media, like TikTok was was a
(15:14):
big part of it.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I know, I know TikTok gets a little bit of.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Controversial in our circles every now and again, but the
president you know, had a lot of tremendous success on there.
And I remember like in the early days of the campaign.
This was still during the primary, if you were to
I guess call it that. You know, we were talking
at the R and T. They're like, like, we need
to be on TikTok, and there was still this concern
about you know, getting on you know a platform, you know,
ties the China and all these things. But my argument
(15:38):
was simple, back then, and I think it remains true today.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Is that we can either see the.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Entire platform to the left, where an entire generation of
young Americans we be inundated with the leftist propaganda, or
we can go and play ball, and what we see
is when we go and play ball, we win the
ball game.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Right. I don't I knew I was all when I
didn't get I didn't go on TikTok. I just if
I was. If I would have told my family and
friends when I was twenty one, Hey, guys, we're going
to do synchronized dances together for strangers to watch, they
would have put me in an institution. But that's something
like I don't get the gen there's a generation divide
between there. So at the top of the show, I
was reading of two conflicting polling data, right. The first
(16:17):
was a Pew research finding that young men are overwhelmingly
more likely to identify as Republicans, and then a series
of recent poles that found President Trump's support among young
people has declined substantially even in polls that really nailed
the twenty twenty four election. And I'm going to guess
which one you probably think is more accurate. But do
you see that there is some kind of declining support
(16:39):
among people who maybe voted for Trump but aren't super partisan,
or these lobal pensity voters have kind of shied away
from him and a whole negative feelings, or maybe even
among some non diehard MAGA group. Is there a declining
support in any way that you can see?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Not that I can see.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
And honestly, I'll got to tell you the only pole
that I really care about is the one that happens
on election day. But looking at you know, of course,
the president supporter young among young men, I think it's
clear as to why they came over to his side.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
You know, the left has spent the last decade, if.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Not more, demonizing young men for simply being young men,
demonizing us for seeking to be providers, protectors and all
of those things. And I think that young men were
sick and tired of it, which is why they came
over to President's Trump's side. You know, I'm familiar with
the recent poll that came out, and honestly, I'm in
the camp that actually it's not because you know, young
men are going back to the left or or they're
drifting left board. It's honestly, probably because they're a lot
(17:36):
a little bit more right wing than we would maybe
like to believe here. And so I think there's you know,
definitely an eagerness for President trying to continue to deliver
on his America First agenda, which I think he's you know,
working aggressively to do every single day.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
And I think that young.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Voters are smart enough to realize a lot of the
nonsense that the left has been spewing about him and
the corporate media has been spewing about him is inaccurate.
And I think when you know, it actually comes down
to it, you know, when the midterms, you know, come
to head, I think that they will follow their behavior
that we saw in the twenty point four election, which
is the resounding support for President's Trump's agenda.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Well, I think also we live in a very fickle
society where people kind of demand things changed in the
blink of an eye. So when things don't, you know,
change in minutes, people are like, well it failed. Then
how do you, as a content creator and somebody who
spends who knows a lot of content creators, especially, how
(18:30):
do you combat like the Harry Simpsons of the world
and left wing content creators who like sit there and
talk about Trump's maths, deportations like that and say, like
it's all negative. How do you sit there and counter
that argument.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Well, I think it's simple.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
You know, this is exactly what voters voted for, right,
they portray these facts that this is just some random
thing that just started happening. President Trump ran on this,
He was unequivocal that this is exactly what he would
do if he was elected. The American people voted for him,
He won the popular bil, the electoral College vote with
full knowledge of that. So I think, you know, looking
at the Harry Systems of the world and other folks
like them, you know, they compare it all these DNC
(19:06):
talking points all they would like, But at the end
of the day, the president's approval rating when it comes
to his handling of immigration is pretty damn high.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
And it's in large part because of the.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Fact voters waunt strong borders, they want secure borders. And
I think it's exactly why they've latched them this Ebstein issue,
because they realize that when the president is talking about immigration,
he's winning. When the president's talking about actual fairness in trade,
he's winning. And they have been you know, trying to
figure out what message will actually stick, and now they've
lashed onto this Epstein nonsense, which is interesting to me
(19:37):
because it's so odd to me that they didn't care about
protecting the innocence of children until it was a politically
expedient issue for them to do so, and they still
actually don't care about it because they're okay with transing
children and the mutilation of their general So honestly, it's
interesting to me that all of a sudden they're so
passionate about protecting America's children when they weren't when it
actually could have mattered, or when Bill Clinton was on
(19:58):
that plane and went to that island, I think what
twenty plus times.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah. Well, the funny thing is is that, I mean,
so even though CJ is only twenty two, he's been
doing this. I thought you were way older because I
feel like I've seen you do this forever.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
You got to get a better skin care routine than no, no, no, no,
not age wise, just because I I feel like I
met you a million years ago, but it was you
started when you were twelve, so it's been a really
long time.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
But when you're even a little older, like I am.
I remember in like five o four Afghanistan being like
the titular issue and Democrats saying, just give us the
house and we'll get out of Afghanistan. Okay, they got
the house in Afghanistan. The withdrawal did not happen, you know,
in any time fashion. And I kind of think the
Epstein thing is the same thing is just give us
(20:41):
and we'll release the documents. And I don't think those
documents are ever coming to light in any but no
matter who's in charge. But that's just my opinion. What
was the what do you think was the thing? When
it comes to I think I think it's a surprising
thing going on with young men in the sense that
at the left message to them from what I see
(21:04):
from like young progressive influencers is it's your own fault
that you feel like you can't make it, and like
that that kid who smokes the anxiety pen or whatever
the case may be, that personal that a nervous breakdown
on Instagram or whatever. Yeah, but when I see some
like right wing or or conservative commentators on who are
(21:29):
young men, they are more right wing than what you
would have seen on like let's say, just Fox News,
like twenty years ago or ten years ago, what was
acceptable conversation about about policy A lot of people, and
I guess, I guess the mainstream media would say this
is a horrible thing, that they've been converted for this.
(21:49):
But haven't they just been pushed into this by quote
unquote acceptable opinion from mainstream outlets over the years, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, yeah, I would think so.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And I also think too, it's important to, you know,
read this against the backdrop of the fact that we're
the COVID generation. You know, I graduated high school in
twenty twenty, and my high school graduation robbed away from me.
I had my high school prom robbed away from me,
all of these things, and we saw the effects of
these these draconian progressive policies in real time in a
very visceral way. And I think that this is still
front of mine for a lot of young people in
(22:25):
my generation. And so I think that when you ask,
you know, why are they swinging so far to the right,
I think it is a direct result the fact that
we swung so far to the left, and the pendulum
is just going in the other direction right now. You know,
for a long time you know, leftist progressives. You know,
they could go on TV and you know, say deaf
to the white man. They could you know, demand reparations.
They could you know, justify furries and you know her
(22:49):
boxers and public schools and this was just common discourse,
like and they weren't you know, like CNN was putting
these people on TV and treating them as if like
this was legitimate point of view.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
And so you know, don't you dare make a beeper
jug on site, right right, I don't ever do that.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
But it's like things too, It's like I'm not surprised
to see the pendulum swing in the way in which
it has because for a long time, I think, you know,
young people, especially young men, they were told we're not
allowed to think these thoughts, we're not allowed to say
these things. And so now I think in a kind
of a post cancel culture environment where everyone's kind of
emboldened and people can say things they you know, usually
(23:25):
probably weren't allowed to say. And even things too it's
like you know, having you know, you said it, like
having been doing this since I was twelve, Like seeing
the what's acceptable discourse kind of change, you know, things
that would have gotten you absolutely like banned from Fox News,
you know, many years ago. You know, now people are
just you know, up and at it. So I think
it's in large part because the fact the left for
(23:47):
a long time treated young conservatives, especially young men, as
like an underclass, and we're just kind of over it
and we're like, no, like fuck these people. What.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Well, there goes the explicit on the disclaimer on the
podcast episode. What it's never me cursing. It's always my guess.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
By the way, you're such a great network of folks, I.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Know, well, I mean the Okay, So just then two
questions that linger in my mind. So let's say that
you know, Trump's numbers when young people drop, because they drop.
Every incumbent presence numbers drop because they have to actually
do things and people are upset with you know, the
speed and which things get done and whatnot. But does
(24:31):
this support for Trump that he experiences record level support,
does it transfer over to the Republican Party in large you.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Know, I think that remains to be seen.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I think you know, jd as like kind of the
air Apparent, is really good at doing a lot of
what the president did during the campaign, right, you know,
sitting down with you know, the Theovonnes of the world,
the Joe Rogan's of the world, and making a strong
case for I think the future of the movement. Does
it translate to folks down ballot, I don't know. You know,
it's one of the those things where I think the
(25:00):
President's gonna have to go out and actually do these rallies.
And thankfully, you know, he's a high energy guy, and
I think he wants to do it. He wants to
go to Georgia, he wants to go to North Carolina,
he wants to go to a lot of these target
seats and districts. So I think they'll have, you know,
that going for them. But I think Republics are gonna
have to really frame to these local pensity voters. And
this is a problem that we've seen, right It's like
when Trump isn't not on the ballot, people just simply
(25:22):
stay home. And so I think that what we have
to really do is frame the urgency of this and
why it's going to be so important for us to
expand our majority in the Senate hold on to the
House as much as we can, because we're seeing it
right now, every single you know, it's so crazy. It's
like Mike Johnson slept on person in Washington. Every single
time a big bill comes up, Everyone's like, how is
he going to do it? How is he going to
(25:43):
do it? And I'm sure that Mike Johnson is stressed
out trying to figure out how is he going to
do it? So let's give him a majority that he
can actually work with where you don't have you know,
a few errant members, you know, who can hold the
entire coccus hostage, right, And so I think we've got
to frame that urgency.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
How do you do that for young voters. You don't
really know about why.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
These majorities are so important or why it's important for
us to have a ten c majority of rather than
a four seat.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
There are smarter people who can answer that question. It's
definitely gonna be I think that's the off end of
the room. How do you make this as urgent as
the twenty twenty four election was, And that's going to
be the challenge.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Yeah, I think that trying to get low propensity voters
out in the midterms is I mean, that's really the
whole kid in Kapotle because what people often sit there
and ask about is like, how did seniors become so
left wing? And I said, it's not that they became
so left wing, it is that the people that you
think of as seniors are probably no longer with us,
and the people who are seniors were, you know they were.
(26:44):
It was a very old reference when it say to you,
which you probably might even know. But if you watch
like all in the family, Archie Bunker in real life
has passed away and his like liberal hippie children are
senior citizens now. So like the conservative ones that you
think of from like thirty years ago will probably no
longer with us or if they are there or home.
And the you know, former hip children of the former
hippie generation is senior citizens now. So that's I think
(27:07):
the big confrontation. And if you're relying on eighteen to
twenty two year olds, I think that's the biggest thing.
If you are a young person today and you want
to be active and not make this your whole career,
but voice your opinion and support them, what should you
be doing as someone who's done this for salt.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah, I didn't get involved in a campaign, you know.
That's how I got my start. When I was twelve
years old.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I showed up to the campaign office of now Congressman
Rick Allen, and I just started knocking on doors and
making phone calls. And I learned a lot from that campaign,
and I think it's kind of helped me as a commentator,
right because I think there are a lot of influencers
in the space. You don't necessarily understand politics, right, but
they understand ideology. They understand that they love MAGA and
they love America First policies. But in terms of like
(27:50):
the actual mechanics of making these things happen, it may
not be like they their strong suit. And it goes
back to the point that you were making earlier. It's
like a lot of people get dissatisfied with things not
moving at the speed of light.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
But I think anyone who kind of.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Has, you know, worked in these spaces and kind of
understands the way Washington works, it's nothing is really meant
to move at the speed of flight in this town, unfortunately,
unless it's a bad idea.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And so when it comes to you know.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Getting involved in all those things, I would say starting
a campaign, it's going to change your life and meet
so many cool people. There's nothing like that grind, but
also too, it's kind of been easier to kind of.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Be an influencer. You know.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
It's one of those things where it's like I saw
a recent study where it was like the number one
job for like Jen Alfa is to be an influencer.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
And I think, which is interesting for.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
A lot of reasons, but I think, you know, go
on TikTok, start talking about these issues, you know, and
and dig deep and kind of just be a truth teller.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
You know, the only way that we're going to beat
back the bad.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Ideas, the Harry Sissons and the Parkers and the Reads
and all those people is if we put our ideas
out there and we flood the zone with our better
ideas and our better policies.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
And so that's what I would recommend.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
And what I would also say too is like, have
the courage to stand up for yourself in your college classrooms.
I get messages all the time from college kids who
are like, you know, my liberal professor is so crazy.
I just like always want a challenger, but I feel bad,
like I don't I think she's gonna come for me
or whatever. You know, Courage is contagious, you know, when
I was at the University of Alabama. You would never
think that there would be a liberal professor there, but
there were. And I would raise my hand and I
(29:18):
would push back if she said something that was, you know,
anti Trump, just fligerantly incorrect. And after class, people will
walk up to me and say CJ. Like, I was
thinking that, but I just didn't have the courage to
say it. But maybe they'll say it next time. And
so I think, be bold, stand on business and use
the tools that you have to platform your voice and
amplify the passions that.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
You care about.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah, that's happened to me in college all the time.
I was the only one. That's probably why I didn't
finish college. So yeah, it's probably not the best advice
if you want to finish college. I also want to
say what CJ said, there was not many influencers who
know the mechanics of campaigns. There are almost no influencers
and know the mechanics and campaigns, and not just a few.
I could probably name the ones that do on one hands,
(30:01):
and there's not many. Do you ever notice, like the
Harry Simpson's and all those people all have the same haircut.
By the way, I'm just thought of that while you
were talking about it. There's like one hand.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Probably it's probably pull test.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
And I'm sure this process did a nice poll on
you know, what's the doucheiest haircut that we can do
that will loureen young women who love men with testosterone
deficiency and still, you know, help us somehow appeal to
the brovo.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yes, well, okay, CJ. Where could people go to follow
all your stuff and you know, keep in touch with
you and and read what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you so much for having Ryan.
It's always a fun time. They can keep up with
me on all the platforms. My user name is the
CJ Pearson and I'll see them there all right.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Thank you for being on this podcast.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
You're listening to It's a Numbers Game with Ryan Gradsky.
We'll be right back now. It's time for the Ask
Me Anything segment of this podcast. If you want a
part of the Ask Me Anything segment, please email me
Ryan at Numbers Game podcast dot com. That's ryanat Numbers
gamepodcast dot com. I love your emails. I read them
all and I try to respond to them either privately
(31:03):
or on the show. So Our first question comes from
Jonathan Payne. He is right. He writes a very long emails.
I want to summarize it. He talks about Oregon, that
it's a pretty red state outside the city of Portland,
and how Portland keeps the entire city voting Democrat, and
he wants to know if there's any chance that Oregon
will be voting Republican in the near future. Jonathan, great question,
And it wasn't that long ago that Oregon was a
(31:25):
swing state. In two thousand, George Bush lost Oregon by
zero point four percent, basically the margin Pap Bukenan took
for him the Reform Party, and in two thousand and
four he only lost by four points. Since then, however,
it's taken a sharp term to the left. There was
I think the best it was the best performing candidate
since George Bush was Mitt Romney's forty two percent. That's
(31:46):
a pretty paltry number. Oregon is elected just two Republicans
statewide since the year two thousand. They also managed at
one point to win the state House back for two years.
But aside from that, it's been pretty pointing results for Republicans.
And when you look at the data of how voters
have registered in the state. It's even worse. Since twenty sixteen,
(32:10):
Oregon lost has lost one hundred and thirty thousand registered
Republicans while gaining eleven thousand Democrats. And it's not just Portland,
because they bank a million voters from or a lot
of voters Reportland. I shouldn't say an exact number. They
bank a lot of voters from Portland, but they also
get a lot of voters out of Eugene and Bend
and Salem, and as I said my last podcast episode,
(32:32):
Democrats have jerry Mander the heck out of that state.
So even though it's got a lot bluer, if they
had fair districts, Republicans would have two congressional seats, which
they don't. They only have one. But there's no signs
on the horizon that we're going to see a red
port Oregon anytime soon, regardless of even what Portland does.
I mean, maybe if everyone there writes in Bernie Sanders name,
(32:56):
it would be interesting, but it's it's pretty blue and
it's only gotten bluer. Next question comes from Wesley Russ.
He also has kind of a long question, so essentially okay,
so he's asked basically, why pulling on mass deportation has changed?
Is it because polsters have changed the way they frame
the question? Great, wonderful question, Wesley, because we do know
the way that polsters ask questions often affect the outcome
(33:19):
of those answers. There are two answers behind this, first
being that the conditions have changed in America. Biden allowing
millions of people into our country illegally changed the feelings
of Americans, and it increased people's uncomfortableness with demographic changes.
But because we're conditioned to be like such a supportive
(33:41):
of legal immigration that you can't criticize, they've kind of
even Republicans, especially Republicans, have really pushed us on illegal immigrations,
all illegal immigration. You know they do the Ted Cruz
mean illegal good, illegal bad, legal good. But even before this,
you know, even before for this, before twenty twenty, you
saw a lot of polls where Americans supported mass deportation,
(34:05):
even though the candidates running our country did not. A
twenty eleven poll from Gallup found that fifty three percent
of Americans supported deporting all illegal immigrants, including seventy percent
of Republicans. A Reuter's ipsis poll from twenty seventeen found
a fifty one percent of American supported deporting all or
some or most illegal immigrants. And this change against mass
(34:29):
deportation really went into high gear when two things happened.
One the racial reckoning of twenty fourteen, where Democrats became
woke on race, and secondly, when Trump went into office,
and Trump's main issue being a deportation in a border
wall meant to be for those subjects, you must be
for Trump, So you had to be against them in
(34:52):
order to be against Trump, which really made those subject
matters decline substantially. And that's true of the issue of
the wall funding as well or supporting a border wall.
A Washington postpot in twenty thirteen found that fifty three
percent of Americans favored building a seven hundred mile long fence.
They used durn fence instead of wall, but a seven
(35:13):
hundred mile long fence across the southern border, including a
majority of Democrats, supported it. When the price tag was
revealed to be forty six billion dollars, a majority of
Americans still supported it, including a plurality of Democrats, and
that only changed because Trump supported it. Because that's what
happens in politics is that you live. We live from
(35:36):
knee jerk reaction to knee jerk reaction. We have to
have basically this partisan ship. Partisan ship has gives you
provides like an immense sense of brain fog where you
feel the need to oppose or support something based upon
you're getting signals from your elected officials or the candidate
you like the most, or the leader of your party.
(35:58):
So when Trump became synonymous with a border wall, guess what.
Democrats hated the idea of a border wall, even though
they supported a forty six billion dollar border wall just
three years prior. Anyway, that's a wrap though for the answer.
I hope that it was I hope that it was good.
I hope that you enjoyed this podcast. Please like and
subscribe if you are listening on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(36:19):
wherever you get your podcast, and if you're feeling generous,
please give me a five star review. It really means
a lot. It goes far so people can see and
hear about the podcast. And I will see you guys
on Thursday,
Welcome back to a Numbers game with Ryan Gerdusky. I
am your host. Happy Monday, everybody. Before I get to
the main topic of this show, I want to talk
about some gossip I heard, like from DC circles about
the Epstein files for a second, and this is not
like the actual file itself or you know what's in it,
(00:21):
but it's the background of Pam Bondi before she did
that whole binder incident at the White House with those influencers.
So I talked to a bunch of people who were
there and who have been in and around her orbit
since then. So the meeting of those influencers was supposed
to be like this giving access to new media thing
(00:44):
where a bunch of cabinet secretaries and the president, the
vice president got to meet with these influencers and whatnot.
It wasn't supposed to be anything to do with Epstein
and Bondi walked in with all these binders full of
nothing and was like this is part one, and YadA, YadA, yad,
and there was a picture that everyone saw and basically
made story go mainstream. Well, I've done my homework, and
(01:04):
I've called the people, and I've called a lot of
people in and around her orbit because I just wanted
to know why, like what was the main thing going
on to fuel this incident that has made this story
live on for like a month now. And there's two
things I can point to. First, Pambondy allegedly openly hates
(01:27):
Representative Anna Polina Luna from Florida, comes from from Florida,
to the point that she was complaining about her and
saying from people around her, saying I can't stand her
and I hate her while using the female bathroom facilities
in the west and the White House. She was complaining
(01:47):
about her there, she complained about in the hallway, she
was saying out loud. And Anna Polina Luna, for those
who don't know, has been trying to push this Epstein
stuff for some time, for quite a few months, even
before the Binder incident. And I think I'm not sure
about this. I shouldn't even say it, but I think
there's like beef that goes back to Florida. But I'm
(02:10):
not exactly sure. But the prodding and the pushing by
Luna over the Epstein file, BONDI thought she was going
to steal her thunder by bringing out these binders and
it completely was mishandled and has caused a backlash that
is like the never ending story. The second reason, and
(02:31):
this came to me from several consultants who I know,
and this is a real curveball, was Bondi allegedly was
trying to build relationships with these influencers because she's thinking
about running for president in twenty twenty eight. Now, I
spoke to someone who's very in the know, and they
(02:54):
said that she's had conversations about running for the White
House in three years. And this is the thinking in
DC circles, right. Obviously, Vice President JD. Vance and Senator
of Marc ro Rubia sorry, Secretary Marco Rubio are in
the you know, the favorites to be the next nominee,
with the edge obviously going to Vance, but Rubio is
very very well liked and respected. Well, there's this idea
(03:15):
in Washington circles, in political circles, that there is an
inevitability that we're going to have another woman on the
ticket eventually, if not this year, if not starting in
twenty twenty eight, maybe in twenty thirty two, there will
be a female vice president on the ballot or female
president on the ballot. Republicans obviously only had one female
(03:36):
president ever vice president nominee ever in two thousand and eight,
and Democrats have had them four times in nineteen eighty four,
twenty sixteen, twenty twenty, and twenty twenty four. So a
bunch of Republican women are trying to figure out the
way to own the female lane basically in the next election,
to be a female candidate like Nicki Haley was Nicki Haley.
(03:59):
For as much as everyone dogs her and says how
terrible she was, she was the first woman. I mean,
credit goes to where it's due. She was the very
first woman Republican nominee candidate ever in a primary to
win a county and to win a state. So she
broke that barrier. So the idea and the thinking is
if they could be the nominee to win a bunch
(04:20):
of states, maybe not win the nomination, but do well enough,
they can then secure a top cabin position like secretary
of State or the vice presidency and then run from there.
Like basically, it's like a two to three step series
to break that glass ceiling, and a number of Republican women,
like allegedly Elis Stephonic Christy Nome and Pam Bondy are
(04:45):
talking about how to own the female lane. Is that
gonna work? I don't really know. Can Pam Bondi come
back from this horrendous pr stunt? I don't necessarily think so,
but you know, stranger things have happened. Donald Trump made
a huge comeback, much bigger than this. So is it possible. Yeah,
it's likely. I don't think so, but someone is preparing
(05:07):
to run to own this female lane and that will
be very interesting to keep an eye out on. Okay,
now for the main topic of the show, I want
to talk about political identity because a poll came out
from Pew Research and it found that forty six percent
of Americans identify as Republicans and forty five percent identify
as Democrats. You may think that one point lead is
(05:30):
not much, but it comes in stark contrast from two
thousand and eight, when Democrats held a twelve point lead
over Republicans. Remember that was the period of the Bush
had sunk, the economy in the Iraq War wasn't going well.
Pew has continued this polling throughout the entire last two decades,
and this is the best Republicans have ever had it
besides two twenty twenty four. Twenty twenty four was when
(05:52):
the Republicans for the first time ever took the lead
by a point, and they've maintained that lead by a point.
Comparing the number twenty twenty to twenty twenty five. Right,
comparing those that five year change, Republicans have made a
three point gain among men and now hold an overall
fourteen point lead. Democrats, however, have actually shrunk their lead
(06:14):
with women, and they have a ten point lead with
women according to the Pew Research Poll. But the most
interesting part was not necessarily sex or race. It was age,
specifically among eighteen to twenty nine year olds. Republicans have
seen their support among that demographic group over the last
five years increased by six points, while Democrats have seen
(06:35):
their support fall by six points. Democrats at one point
had an eighteen point lead among young voters I was
in twenty twenty. Their lead now is just six points,
and there's a sharp gender divide. Men between eighteen to
twenty nine support Republicans by eighteen points, while women between
eighteen and twenty nine support Democrat Democrats by twenty one points.
(06:58):
That is like what you see in places South Korea
where this youth divide by gender is so extreme and
it's actually pulling even further in the other direction. Go
back to twenty to twenty twenty four election, right when
we saw all these high profile, really incredible studies of
how young people cast their ballads. In the Trump versus
(07:19):
Harris election, voters under thirty supported Harris, but not by
anywhere near the numbers that previous Democrats had enjoyed. In
the Catalyst, there is a democrat analysis firm, they said,
Catalyst said that Harris had a ten point lead, Pew
Research said that she had a nineteen point lead, and
David Shore, the very smart progressive data analysts, said that
(07:42):
Trump's support among young white men under twenty two was
the strongest support he enjoyed from any demographic group, and
he won white women under twenty and he won non
white men under twenty. So this question is right, a
young people's stay Republican or was this just a protest
(08:03):
against Biden subsequently Harris? Because while this Pew Research number
is very strong for Republicans, and while the twenty twenty
four election was strong for Republicans, there are a number
of subsequent polls that have come out in recent weeks
showing Republican support among young people cratering. And you've may
seen this on social media or if you watch cable news,
they'll say, you know, X, Y and Z poll says
(08:26):
that Trump support among this part of the coalition, of
that part has collapsed. So what I did was I
aggregated all the polling numbers for you guys, right, I judged.
I looked at twelve recent public polls that made their
cross tabs available to look at how Trump's numbers were.
Were the voters under the age of thirty Among these
twelve polls, and they include polls like Atlas, Intel and
(08:47):
Quantus Insight, which nailed the twenty twenty four elections. Are
not all fake polls that always underperformed Trump. These are
some of the most accurate polsters in the last election
that said Trump was going to win. They found that
the overall average for voters under thirty so that Trump
had a thirty three percent approval rating and a sixty
one percent disapproval rating. That's that's a significant number. That
(09:09):
is a twenty eight point negative approval rating for Trump
among young voters. What is causing this trend is the
interesting question. No, Trump's numbers are down with every group,
as our most presidents when they're serving, right, Because when
you're campaigning, it's just all wonderful ideas. It's all I'm
going to promise you this, and I promise you that
I'm going to do this, and then reality sets in
(09:31):
and everyone's like, oh, you know, the president hasn't done
what I need at the speed I need them to
my liking with the media praising him, and America is
a very fickle country, and we want things very quickly,
and we want things how we like them, and all
that feeds into that. Right. Well, first, Trump's decline with
gen Z is only slightly larger than his decline overall
(09:55):
with a national average, right because once again, we're all fickle,
we all like things that we like them, and there
is declining among everybody. Now. Doesn't mean, though, that this
demographic that voted for Trump in record breaking numbers, especially
men under twenty, will they support Republicans in the next
(10:16):
November election in the midterms. There's not a lot of
polling on the midterm elections yet. I mean, we're really
early early, so I wouldn't expect it. But right now,
given what is out there. Republicans have a negative twenty
rating with the youngest voter demographic, which is better than
Trump overall, but not by much, but it is better
than Trump. So it would suggest that although they do
(10:39):
not like Trump, and I don't have the exact reasoning
for why they are disliking Trump, although it's probably you know,
that everything hasn't happened to their liking as immediately as
they do, or they you know, are inundated with negative
media or social media about him and that's effected their opinions.
It doesn't seem like they are running back home to Democrats,
(11:01):
and I was curious as to does that mean that
this is a permanent shift Emerson, which is a pretty
decent pole they've got. They've become much better polster than
they used to be able to say that. Emerson did
a hypothetical matchup of the twenty twenty eight election with
JD Vance versus Gavin Newsom, Pee Pudage and AOC. JD
(11:21):
beat all the candidates head to head, right with allan overall,
not just any specific demographic, but when you look at
young voters, JDA basically tied everyone except for AOC. AOC
ran away with it, And I wonder as you see
the Mandani campaign grow in New York, as you see
(11:43):
other young progressives really get active and take the mantle
from the Nancy Pelosis and take the mantle from the
Amala Harris's and the Joe Bidens, is that going to
be their answer to young people who feel disenfranchised right now,
or feel like Trump hasn't met their standards, or feel
like it's their job to be angry because social media
feeds them that an algorithm. I don't know. I think
(12:06):
that that's really what we have to wait and see.
I think their question is, is the Pew Research estimates
right where young men are you know, basically permanently left
the Democratic Party and they are the party of the
Republicans vote men under thirty, or you know, have the
polls of the last few weeks shown signs that young
people that twenty twenty four was a fluke and young
(12:27):
people are right back to the Democrats. That's the question
we're going to see going forward in this upcoming election
and the twenty twenty four election or twenty twenty eight
election as a whole. But that's really the question over
the next eighteen months. My guest this week is one
of those young people who have been a vocal supporter
President Trump and has used social media to organize for them.
(12:48):
His interview is coming up next, Say tuned. CJ. Pearson
is the co chair of the GP Youth Advisory Council.
At twenty two years old, he may Time Magazine's Top
one hundred creators, and his parties in Washington, d C.
Have become brand The inauguration became infamous when New York
Magazine entitled at the Cruel Kids Club. I know they
(13:10):
meant that as an insult, but it was iconic. CJ.
Thank you for being here.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Ryan, Thanks so much for Rabbitman. Good to see you, okay, CJ.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
President Trump received a record breaking support among young voters
in twenty twenty four, especially among young men. What do
you contribute that to?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I think authenticity. I think the president, you know, was
very intentional about meeting young.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Voters where they were.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
But also too he didn't try to change himself or
become a chameleon based on who he was talking to.
You know, every time Kamala Harris sat down with a
podcaster or a late night television show.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
You didn't know if she was Jamaica and Mexican or
whatever else.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
But when you know, when President Trump went on a podcast,
he talked about cocaine, He talked about his celebrity friends,
from growing up in the city of New York and
being a real estate titan. People ask me all the time,
you know, how did President Trump win the bro vote?
He won the bro vote by being a bro like
unapolished himself.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
And I think the results speak for them.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yeah. David Shore, who's a progressive data analysis data scientist,
I'm not sure if you've read his stuff, but he was.
His finding was that young white men under the age
of twenty two were the most Republican group in the
country for like I think the first time ever. How
did you or how did the GOP in a larger sense,
help effectively mobilize young people for that election?
Speaker 3 (14:29):
You know, I think going into the election, we knew
that we were gonna have to turn out low propensity
voters if we're really going to get the president across
the finish line, right, And I think the podcast strategy,
which you know, hackxburg Switzers there's a lot of credit for,
was a critical piece of the puzzle in that right
because like these low preensit voters are not watching Fox News,
they're not watching CNN, but they are watching Theo Vonne,
they are watching Andrew Schultz, and they are you know,
(14:51):
watching Busting with the Boys on parstool. And so the
president going on these platforms and kind of taking his
message in a place where they oftentimes wouldn't expect to
hear them or wouldn't you know, want to hear them there,
but kind of making them was incredibly effective in that sense.
But also too, I think that the president's just use
an embrace of social media, like TikTok was was a
(15:14):
big part of it.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I know, I know TikTok gets a little bit of.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Controversial in our circles every now and again, but the
president you know, had a lot of tremendous success on there.
And I remember like in the early days of the campaign.
This was still during the primary, if you were to
I guess call it that. You know, we were talking
at the R and T. They're like, like, we need
to be on TikTok, and there was still this concern
about you know, getting on you know a platform, you know,
ties the China and all these things. But my argument
(15:38):
was simple, back then, and I think it remains true today.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Is that we can either see the.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Entire platform to the left, where an entire generation of
young Americans we be inundated with the leftist propaganda, or
we can go and play ball, and what we see
is when we go and play ball, we win the
ball game.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Right. I don't I knew I was all when I
didn't get I didn't go on TikTok. I just if
I was. If I would have told my family and
friends when I was twenty one, Hey, guys, we're going
to do synchronized dances together for strangers to watch, they
would have put me in an institution. But that's something
like I don't get the gen there's a generation divide
between there. So at the top of the show, I
was reading of two conflicting polling data, right. The first
(16:17):
was a Pew research finding that young men are overwhelmingly
more likely to identify as Republicans, and then a series
of recent poles that found President Trump's support among young
people has declined substantially even in polls that really nailed
the twenty twenty four election. And I'm going to guess
which one you probably think is more accurate. But do
you see that there is some kind of declining support
(16:39):
among people who maybe voted for Trump but aren't super partisan,
or these lobal pensity voters have kind of shied away
from him and a whole negative feelings, or maybe even
among some non diehard MAGA group. Is there a declining
support in any way that you can see?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Not that I can see.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
And honestly, I'll got to tell you the only pole
that I really care about is the one that happens
on election day. But looking at you know, of course,
the president supporter young among young men, I think it's
clear as to why they came over to his side.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
You know, the left has spent the last decade, if.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Not more, demonizing young men for simply being young men,
demonizing us for seeking to be providers, protectors and all
of those things. And I think that young men were
sick and tired of it, which is why they came
over to President's Trump's side. You know, I'm familiar with
the recent poll that came out, and honestly, I'm in
the camp that actually it's not because you know, young
men are going back to the left or or they're
drifting left board. It's honestly, probably because they're a lot
(17:36):
a little bit more right wing than we would maybe
like to believe here. And so I think there's you know,
definitely an eagerness for President trying to continue to deliver
on his America First agenda, which I think he's you know,
working aggressively to do every single day.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
And I think that young.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Voters are smart enough to realize a lot of the
nonsense that the left has been spewing about him and
the corporate media has been spewing about him is inaccurate.
And I think when you know, it actually comes down
to it, you know, when the midterms, you know, come
to head, I think that they will follow their behavior
that we saw in the twenty point four election, which
is the resounding support for President's Trump's agenda.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Well, I think also we live in a very fickle
society where people kind of demand things changed in the
blink of an eye. So when things don't, you know,
change in minutes, people are like, well it failed. Then
how do you, as a content creator and somebody who
spends who knows a lot of content creators, especially, how
(18:30):
do you combat like the Harry Simpsons of the world
and left wing content creators who like sit there and
talk about Trump's maths, deportations like that and say, like
it's all negative. How do you sit there and counter
that argument.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Well, I think it's simple.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
You know, this is exactly what voters voted for, right,
they portray these facts that this is just some random
thing that just started happening. President Trump ran on this,
He was unequivocal that this is exactly what he would
do if he was elected. The American people voted for him,
He won the popular bil, the electoral College vote with
full knowledge of that. So I think, you know, looking
at the Harry Systems of the world and other folks
like them, you know, they compare it all these DNC
(19:06):
talking points all they would like, But at the end
of the day, the president's approval rating when it comes
to his handling of immigration is pretty damn high.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
And it's in large part because of the.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Fact voters waunt strong borders, they want secure borders. And
I think it's exactly why they've latched them this Ebstein issue,
because they realize that when the president is talking about immigration,
he's winning. When the president's talking about actual fairness in trade,
he's winning. And they have been you know, trying to
figure out what message will actually stick, and now they've
lashed onto this Epstein nonsense, which is interesting to me
(19:37):
because it's so odd to me that they didn't care about
protecting the innocence of children until it was a politically
expedient issue for them to do so, and they still
actually don't care about it because they're okay with transing
children and the mutilation of their general So honestly, it's
interesting to me that all of a sudden they're so
passionate about protecting America's children when they weren't when it
actually could have mattered, or when Bill Clinton was on
(19:58):
that plane and went to that island, I think what
twenty plus times.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah. Well, the funny thing is is that, I mean,
so even though CJ is only twenty two, he's been
doing this. I thought you were way older because I
feel like I've seen you do this forever.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
You got to get a better skin care routine than no, no, no, no,
not age wise, just because I I feel like I
met you a million years ago, but it was you
started when you were twelve, so it's been a really
long time.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
But when you're even a little older, like I am.
I remember in like five o four Afghanistan being like
the titular issue and Democrats saying, just give us the
house and we'll get out of Afghanistan. Okay, they got
the house in Afghanistan. The withdrawal did not happen, you know,
in any time fashion. And I kind of think the
Epstein thing is the same thing is just give us
(20:41):
and we'll release the documents. And I don't think those
documents are ever coming to light in any but no
matter who's in charge. But that's just my opinion. What
was the what do you think was the thing? When
it comes to I think I think it's a surprising
thing going on with young men in the sense that
at the left message to them from what I see
(21:04):
from like young progressive influencers is it's your own fault
that you feel like you can't make it, and like
that that kid who smokes the anxiety pen or whatever
the case may be, that personal that a nervous breakdown
on Instagram or whatever. Yeah, but when I see some
like right wing or or conservative commentators on who are
(21:29):
young men, they are more right wing than what you
would have seen on like let's say, just Fox News,
like twenty years ago or ten years ago, what was
acceptable conversation about about policy A lot of people, and
I guess, I guess the mainstream media would say this
is a horrible thing, that they've been converted for this.
(21:49):
But haven't they just been pushed into this by quote
unquote acceptable opinion from mainstream outlets over the years, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, yeah, I would think so.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And I also think too, it's important to, you know,
read this against the backdrop of the fact that we're
the COVID generation. You know, I graduated high school in
twenty twenty, and my high school graduation robbed away from me.
I had my high school prom robbed away from me,
all of these things, and we saw the effects of
these these draconian progressive policies in real time in a
very visceral way. And I think that this is still
front of mine for a lot of young people in
(22:25):
my generation. And so I think that when you ask,
you know, why are they swinging so far to the right,
I think it is a direct result the fact that
we swung so far to the left, and the pendulum
is just going in the other direction right now. You know,
for a long time you know, leftist progressives. You know,
they could go on TV and you know, say deaf
to the white man. They could you know, demand reparations.
They could you know, justify furries and you know her
(22:49):
boxers and public schools and this was just common discourse,
like and they weren't you know, like CNN was putting
these people on TV and treating them as if like
this was legitimate point of view.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
And so you know, don't you dare make a beeper
jug on site, right right, I don't ever do that.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
But it's like things too, It's like I'm not surprised
to see the pendulum swing in the way in which
it has because for a long time, I think, you know,
young people, especially young men, they were told we're not
allowed to think these thoughts, we're not allowed to say
these things. And so now I think in a kind
of a post cancel culture environment where everyone's kind of
emboldened and people can say things they you know, usually
(23:25):
probably weren't allowed to say. And even things too it's
like you know, having you know, you said it, like
having been doing this since I was twelve, Like seeing
the what's acceptable discourse kind of change, you know, things
that would have gotten you absolutely like banned from Fox News,
you know, many years ago. You know, now people are
just you know, up and at it. So I think
it's in large part because the fact the left for
(23:47):
a long time treated young conservatives, especially young men, as
like an underclass, and we're just kind of over it
and we're like, no, like fuck these people. What.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Well, there goes the explicit on the disclaimer on the
podcast episode. What it's never me cursing. It's always my guess.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
By the way, you're such a great network of folks, I.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Know, well, I mean the Okay, So just then two
questions that linger in my mind. So let's say that
you know, Trump's numbers when young people drop, because they drop.
Every incumbent presence numbers drop because they have to actually
do things and people are upset with you know, the
speed and which things get done and whatnot. But does
(24:31):
this support for Trump that he experiences record level support,
does it transfer over to the Republican Party in large you.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Know, I think that remains to be seen.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I think you know, jd as like kind of the
air Apparent, is really good at doing a lot of
what the president did during the campaign, right, you know,
sitting down with you know, the Theovonnes of the world,
the Joe Rogan's of the world, and making a strong
case for I think the future of the movement. Does
it translate to folks down ballot, I don't know. You know,
it's one of the those things where I think the
(25:00):
President's gonna have to go out and actually do these rallies.
And thankfully, you know, he's a high energy guy, and
I think he wants to do it. He wants to
go to Georgia, he wants to go to North Carolina,
he wants to go to a lot of these target
seats and districts. So I think they'll have, you know,
that going for them. But I think Republics are gonna
have to really frame to these local pensity voters. And
this is a problem that we've seen, right It's like
when Trump isn't not on the ballot, people just simply
(25:22):
stay home. And so I think that what we have
to really do is frame the urgency of this and
why it's going to be so important for us to
expand our majority in the Senate hold on to the
House as much as we can, because we're seeing it
right now, every single you know, it's so crazy. It's
like Mike Johnson slept on person in Washington. Every single
time a big bill comes up, Everyone's like, how is
he going to do it? How is he going to
(25:43):
do it? And I'm sure that Mike Johnson is stressed
out trying to figure out how is he going to
do it? So let's give him a majority that he
can actually work with where you don't have you know,
a few errant members, you know, who can hold the
entire coccus hostage, right, And so I think we've got
to frame that urgency.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
How do you do that for young voters. You don't
really know about why.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
These majorities are so important or why it's important for
us to have a ten c majority of rather than
a four seat.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
There are smarter people who can answer that question. It's
definitely gonna be I think that's the off end of
the room. How do you make this as urgent as
the twenty twenty four election was, And that's going to
be the challenge.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Yeah, I think that trying to get low propensity voters
out in the midterms is I mean, that's really the
whole kid in Kapotle because what people often sit there
and ask about is like, how did seniors become so
left wing? And I said, it's not that they became
so left wing, it is that the people that you
think of as seniors are probably no longer with us,
and the people who are seniors were, you know they were.
(26:44):
It was a very old reference when it say to you,
which you probably might even know. But if you watch
like all in the family, Archie Bunker in real life
has passed away and his like liberal hippie children are
senior citizens now. So like the conservative ones that you
think of from like thirty years ago will probably no
longer with us or if they are there or home.
And the you know, former hip children of the former
hippie generation is senior citizens now. So that's I think
(27:07):
the big confrontation. And if you're relying on eighteen to
twenty two year olds, I think that's the biggest thing.
If you are a young person today and you want
to be active and not make this your whole career,
but voice your opinion and support them, what should you
be doing as someone who's done this for salt.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah, I didn't get involved in a campaign, you know.
That's how I got my start. When I was twelve
years old.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I showed up to the campaign office of now Congressman
Rick Allen, and I just started knocking on doors and
making phone calls. And I learned a lot from that campaign,
and I think it's kind of helped me as a commentator,
right because I think there are a lot of influencers
in the space. You don't necessarily understand politics, right, but
they understand ideology. They understand that they love MAGA and
they love America First policies. But in terms of like
(27:50):
the actual mechanics of making these things happen, it may
not be like they their strong suit. And it goes
back to the point that you were making earlier. It's
like a lot of people get dissatisfied with things not
moving at the speed of light.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
But I think anyone who kind of.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Has, you know, worked in these spaces and kind of
understands the way Washington works, it's nothing is really meant
to move at the speed of flight in this town, unfortunately,
unless it's a bad idea.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And so when it comes to you know.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Getting involved in all those things, I would say starting
a campaign, it's going to change your life and meet
so many cool people. There's nothing like that grind, but
also too, it's kind of been easier to kind of.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Be an influencer. You know.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
It's one of those things where it's like I saw
a recent study where it was like the number one
job for like Jen Alfa is to be an influencer.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
And I think, which is interesting for.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
A lot of reasons, but I think, you know, go
on TikTok, start talking about these issues, you know, and
and dig deep and kind of just be a truth teller.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
You know, the only way that we're going to beat
back the bad.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Ideas, the Harry Sissons and the Parkers and the Reads
and all those people is if we put our ideas
out there and we flood the zone with our better
ideas and our better policies.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
And so that's what I would recommend.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
And what I would also say too is like, have
the courage to stand up for yourself in your college classrooms.
I get messages all the time from college kids who
are like, you know, my liberal professor is so crazy.
I just like always want a challenger, but I feel bad,
like I don't I think she's gonna come for me
or whatever. You know, Courage is contagious, you know, when
I was at the University of Alabama. You would never
think that there would be a liberal professor there, but
there were. And I would raise my hand and I
(29:18):
would push back if she said something that was, you know,
anti Trump, just fligerantly incorrect. And after class, people will
walk up to me and say CJ. Like, I was
thinking that, but I just didn't have the courage to
say it. But maybe they'll say it next time. And
so I think, be bold, stand on business and use
the tools that you have to platform your voice and
amplify the passions that.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
You care about.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah, that's happened to me in college all the time.
I was the only one. That's probably why I didn't
finish college. So yeah, it's probably not the best advice
if you want to finish college. I also want to
say what CJ said, there was not many influencers who
know the mechanics of campaigns. There are almost no influencers
and know the mechanics and campaigns, and not just a few.
I could probably name the ones that do on one hands,
(30:01):
and there's not many. Do you ever notice, like the
Harry Simpson's and all those people all have the same haircut.
By the way, I'm just thought of that while you
were talking about it. There's like one hand.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Probably it's probably pull test.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
And I'm sure this process did a nice poll on
you know, what's the doucheiest haircut that we can do
that will loureen young women who love men with testosterone
deficiency and still, you know, help us somehow appeal to
the brovo.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yes, well, okay, CJ. Where could people go to follow
all your stuff and you know, keep in touch with
you and and read what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you so much for having Ryan.
It's always a fun time. They can keep up with
me on all the platforms. My user name is the
CJ Pearson and I'll see them there all right.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Thank you for being on this podcast.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
You're listening to It's a Numbers Game with Ryan Gradsky.
We'll be right back now. It's time for the Ask
Me Anything segment of this podcast. If you want a
part of the Ask Me Anything segment, please email me
Ryan at Numbers Game podcast dot com. That's ryanat Numbers
gamepodcast dot com. I love your emails. I read them
all and I try to respond to them either privately
(31:03):
or on the show. So Our first question comes from
Jonathan Payne. He is right. He writes a very long emails.
I want to summarize it. He talks about Oregon, that
it's a pretty red state outside the city of Portland,
and how Portland keeps the entire city voting Democrat, and
he wants to know if there's any chance that Oregon
will be voting Republican in the near future. Jonathan, great question,
And it wasn't that long ago that Oregon was a
(31:25):
swing state. In two thousand, George Bush lost Oregon by
zero point four percent, basically the margin Pap Bukenan took
for him the Reform Party, and in two thousand and
four he only lost by four points. Since then, however,
it's taken a sharp term to the left. There was
I think the best it was the best performing candidate
since George Bush was Mitt Romney's forty two percent. That's
(31:46):
a pretty paltry number. Oregon is elected just two Republicans
statewide since the year two thousand. They also managed at
one point to win the state House back for two years.
But aside from that, it's been pretty pointing results for Republicans.
And when you look at the data of how voters
have registered in the state. It's even worse. Since twenty sixteen,
(32:10):
Oregon lost has lost one hundred and thirty thousand registered
Republicans while gaining eleven thousand Democrats. And it's not just Portland,
because they bank a million voters from or a lot
of voters Reportland. I shouldn't say an exact number. They
bank a lot of voters from Portland, but they also
get a lot of voters out of Eugene and Bend
and Salem, and as I said my last podcast episode,
(32:32):
Democrats have jerry Mander the heck out of that state.
So even though it's got a lot bluer, if they
had fair districts, Republicans would have two congressional seats, which
they don't. They only have one. But there's no signs
on the horizon that we're going to see a red
port Oregon anytime soon, regardless of even what Portland does.
I mean, maybe if everyone there writes in Bernie Sanders name,
(32:56):
it would be interesting, but it's it's pretty blue and
it's only gotten bluer. Next question comes from Wesley Russ.
He also has kind of a long question, so essentially okay,
so he's asked basically, why pulling on mass deportation has changed?
Is it because polsters have changed the way they frame
the question? Great, wonderful question, Wesley, because we do know
the way that polsters ask questions often affect the outcome
(33:19):
of those answers. There are two answers behind this, first
being that the conditions have changed in America. Biden allowing
millions of people into our country illegally changed the feelings
of Americans, and it increased people's uncomfortableness with demographic changes.
But because we're conditioned to be like such a supportive
(33:41):
of legal immigration that you can't criticize, they've kind of
even Republicans, especially Republicans, have really pushed us on illegal immigrations,
all illegal immigration. You know they do the Ted Cruz
mean illegal good, illegal bad, legal good. But even before this,
you know, even before for this, before twenty twenty, you
saw a lot of polls where Americans supported mass deportation,
(34:05):
even though the candidates running our country did not. A
twenty eleven poll from Gallup found that fifty three percent
of Americans supported deporting all illegal immigrants, including seventy percent
of Republicans. A Reuter's ipsis poll from twenty seventeen found
a fifty one percent of American supported deporting all or
some or most illegal immigrants. And this change against mass
(34:29):
deportation really went into high gear when two things happened.
One the racial reckoning of twenty fourteen, where Democrats became
woke on race, and secondly, when Trump went into office,
and Trump's main issue being a deportation in a border
wall meant to be for those subjects, you must be
for Trump, So you had to be against them in
(34:52):
order to be against Trump, which really made those subject
matters decline substantially. And that's true of the issue of
the wall funding as well or supporting a border wall.
A Washington postpot in twenty thirteen found that fifty three
percent of Americans favored building a seven hundred mile long fence.
They used durn fence instead of wall, but a seven
(35:13):
hundred mile long fence across the southern border, including a
majority of Democrats, supported it. When the price tag was
revealed to be forty six billion dollars, a majority of
Americans still supported it, including a plurality of Democrats, and
that only changed because Trump supported it. Because that's what
happens in politics is that you live. We live from
(35:36):
knee jerk reaction to knee jerk reaction. We have to
have basically this partisan ship. Partisan ship has gives you
provides like an immense sense of brain fog where you
feel the need to oppose or support something based upon
you're getting signals from your elected officials or the candidate
you like the most, or the leader of your party.
(35:58):
So when Trump became synonymous with a border wall, guess what.
Democrats hated the idea of a border wall, even though
they supported a forty six billion dollar border wall just
three years prior. Anyway, that's a wrap though for the answer.
I hope that it was I hope that it was good.
I hope that you enjoyed this podcast. Please like and
subscribe if you are listening on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(36:19):
wherever you get your podcast, and if you're feeling generous,
please give me a five star review. It really means
a lot. It goes far so people can see and
hear about the podcast. And I will see you guys
on Thursday,
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