The 13-year-old Georgian whose YouTube videos dissing President Barack Obama helped rocket him to national attention as a rising young conservative star is taking a giant step back from GOP politics.
C.J. Pearson said he is now an "independent" who is "stepping away from the party and all labels."
The political whims of a teenager who lives with his grandparents in a suburb of Augusta wouldn't normally merit a second glance. But Pearson's decision attracted headlines in
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and other outlets is because he was able to parlay his social media fame into a political platform.
He was chairman of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's "Teens for Ted" presidential push until breaking from the campaign earlier this month. In Georgia, he has tried to use his pedestal to push legislation that would allow younger Georgians to run for office.
And the Georgia GOP, sensing a star in the making with a telegenic young black conservative, had big hopes for the teen. The party enlisted minority engagement guru Leo Smith to mentor Pearson to ensure his political flame doesn't flicker out.
Meanwhile, he faced external pressure from skeptics who question whether outsiders are taking advantage of a brash teenager - and from his grandparents, who don't agree with his political views and would rather he focus on school.
Still, Pearson's retreat from the GOP was not exactly a surprise to close observers. There is something of a pattern forming among young Republican conservatives who don't pan out.
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There's also Benji Backer, who was 16 in 2013 when he became the youngest person since Krohn to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering that attracts thousands of Republican luminaries. He quit big-time politics in July, saying he was worn out by the hatred and phoniness of big-time politics. Both Krohn and Backer declined to comment for this story. But Backer pointed toward a blog and social media posts that said he worried Pearson wasn't willing to listen to advice to be humble and collaborate with other up-and-coming conservatives.
Pearson said his deep-rooted and "authentic" passion for politics will keep him engaged in a way that the others weren't. His grandmother, Robin, agrees that he's devoted to conservative causes despite her misgivings. But she's more worried about keeping him grounded.
"What counts most is his education, and if he focuses most of his time on politics, he's going to fall short," the elder Pearson said. "He takes me for a spin. And we have to bring him back down to Earth to remind him we're the adults and he's the child."
Pearson sent word just last week that he was in the running to be the head of a conservative group for teens. But he Saturday that a recent conversation with a friend was a turning point for him.
"She urged me to be my own person. My own voice," Pearson said. "I couldn't do that with petty labels hanging above me."
