If Sundays in the South are saved for worship, then autumn Saturdays are for college football.
CJ Pearson knows this. The 24-year-old conservative activist once attended the University of Alabama, and his Next250 PAC is traveling to fraternity houses on Southern college campuses to help woo young men who helped carry President Donald Trump to a White House victory in 2024 but have begun moving away from the GOP ahead of the midterms.
If Republicans are to "survive" the midterms, Pearson said, the party must show up to party — or at least be willing to go again to less familiar ground.
"I've kind of prided myself on going places that typically Republicans would not go in the past and you know, for some reason, they haven't really spent much time
at the fraternity house, which is kind of ironic," Pearson told USA TODAY.
Two election cycles ago, Pearson dropped out of Alabama, a gridiron powerhouse, citing indoctrination.
"I no longer have any interest in paying to be told my Blackness is a disability," Pearson wrote in a 2023 New York Post Op-ed.
The Georgia native helped Trump win shortly thereafter with outreach tailored to Gen Z, but young men have since turned on the president.
Fifty-five percent of young men ages 18-29 backed Trump in 2024. But Democrats now wield a one-point advantage with the constituency ahead of Nov. 3, according to The New York Times/Siena University polls. A Harvard Youth Poll released this month found 58% of likely male voters ages 18-29 supported Democrats, compared to 32% who backed Republicans.
Sam Abrams, a professor at Sarah Lawrence College, told USA TODAY that many American men are now seeking purpose and have reclaimed traditional family values.
"If he can connect with them, if he can reach them, this could mobilize a significant portion of the population and definitely down in the South, you know, in Florida schools and Georgia schools and Carolina schools," Abrams said.
Greek life reigns most supreme in the South. The viral 2021 TikTok hashtag #RushTok helped inspire the 2023 HBO documentary "Bama Rush," which chronicled Alabama students' intense preparation ahead of sorority bid day.
Recently, fraternities have been in the national conversation. Hazing incidents on college campuses across the United States have made headlines, including arrests of frat brothers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Texas State University. A Jane Doe filed a lawsuit Sept. 18 alleging that members of Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell University drugged and raped her in 2024.
'I wish it could just be simpler'
Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, the state's GOP nominee for governor, joined Pearson on Sept. 7 at a day party, or "darty," at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
The two-term congressman is vying to replace Gov. Ron DeSantis, but an unexpectedly tight race has emerged between Donalds and former Republican congressman David Jolly, who turned on the right after Trump's rise in 2016. In the Senate race, a progressive insurgent, Angie Nixon, hopes to unseat first-term Sen. Ashley Moody, who DeSantis appointed.
Donalds captured a selfie video at the darty, and then turned the phone camera around to reveal a sea of young men and women.
During Donalds' visit, dozens of FSU students danced and donned cherry red "MAKE AMERICA PARTY AGAIN" trucker hats handed out by Next 250 in a hype video shared by the organization.
Their caps were printed in bold white or gold lettering, a nod to Trump's recognizable MAGA garb. White students poured out and poured up Busch Light brews in the video.
Gavin Bombara is an FSU Theta Chi frat brother raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, who introduced Donalds at the event. The college senior, a member of the fraternity's executive board, said he was apprehensive about hosting Donalds at first — the students didn't want a formal political environment — but his mind changed after meeting Pearson.
Bombara, 22, grew up in a Republican family but said moving South to attend Florida State was like a culture shock "in a good way." Most of Bombara's frat brothers also lean right, he said.
Fraternities and sororities have long been stereotyped as more conservative than other college students. A 2012 study at the University of Iowa found that fraternity and sorority members often enter college with more right-leaning political viewpoints than their peers.
Bombara said he hopes to raise a traditional American family. He also wants to send his future children to a public or private school where kids learn factual information without a political agenda, a common talking point among the conservative right in America.
"I wish it could just be simpler almost. I know that's probably narrow-minded or shallow, but that's kind of how I feel," Bombara said.
He added that "the media and the way kids are being taught nowadays and just the influx of technology and all the pressure and all the ideas it puts into younger kids' minds is just pretty scary to me." Bombara said more of his friends plan to vote for Donalds after attending the event.
Game changer?
Later that month, Pearson flew home from Washington on a sun-drenched weekend to campaign with Senate nominee Mike Collins at the University of Georgia before the No. 3 Bulldogs defeated Oklahoma, 41-13.
Similarly, Collins is locked in a not-so-competitive contest.
First-term Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff has led comfortably in every general election poll released since Collins, a two-term Republican congressman, won his May primary.
Pearson and Collins, the son of former Georgia Rep. Mac Collins, swung by the Theta Chi house at UGA to speak with young voters. Pearson posted an Instagram carousel of their visit.
In his snaps, Southern sorority girls wore preppy dresses primed for a peppy weekend brunch. Guys sported attire also worn by suburban dads readying for a round of golf: Tan khakis paired with red short-sleeve polos.
The students drank from red Solo cups. Collins and Pearson posed for photos with thumbs raised and silver wristwatches on display. Collins smiled for the camera.
Alabama sorority member Alexis Mueller, a Next 250 staffer, said the organization is trying to engage with students like her own friends. Like Bombara at Florida State, Mueller said her friends are less politically attuned but value traditional ideas about faith and religion.
"A lot of them will come back and tell us they've never really had a political figure (who) came to show up and talk to them, kind of meet them where they are," Mueller, 21, told USA TODAY.
Both parties are laying it all on the field, but midterm elections often go against the president in power. Democrats gained 41 House seats and two U.S. senators in Nevada and Arizona during Trump's first term in 2018.
"I think young voters are going to choose common sense over crazy, each and every time," Pearson said.
There is only one Saturday left before Election Day. Pearson hopes a couple more pours could help his party.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump is losing young men. Can frat bros alleviate Republican woes?
