When Indiana state lawmakers had been under pressure from President Donald Trump and his allies to redistrict and create extra GOP-friendly seats in Congress, Nick Roberts, an Indianapolis city-county councilor, was amongst a legion of Democrats who testified in opposition to it at the state capitol.
After his testimony final month, messages trickled in, and folks had been confused. Some thought they noticed him advocating in favor of redistricting that day. Some thought his remarks will need to have been AI-generated.
Regardless of the causes, Roberts knew what the confusion was all about. He needed to get forward of the challenge.
“If you see somebody that looks like me at a Republican event, or definitely if they’re wearing a MAGA hat, it is not me, it is him,” Roberts defined in a video he posted on social media, saying he has a twin brother who’s additionally in politics, and who undoubtedly isn’t a Democrat.
“While we disagree on a lot of things, he’s still my brother and I care about him,” he stated.
His twin, Nathan Roberts, additionally testified that day, however in favor of redistricting, arguing voters had years to elect totally different management and refused to. Unlike his brother, Nathan forayed into the public coverage house, creating the anti-mass migration nonprofit Save Heritage Indiana with Daniel Poynter, who based Technology for Freedom, a tech agency that’s labored with conservative suppose tank The Heritage Foundation.
“There’s nothing about illegal immigration at the state house. So, we created a nonprofit group based off of it because we thought there was a huge need,” Nathan advised NCS.
They’ve centered their group on this perception of preserving Indiana’s cultural heritage and ending mass migration to the state and have notched some top endorsements from state lawmakers, together with Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, a Republican.
Nick says he disagrees sharply with how his brother is tackling the immigration challenge.
“I disagree with basically every single issue that my brother works on politically, the redistricting stuff, the immigration stuff, the education stuff. We disagree on 95% of political issues,” he advised NCS.
They’ve been like that since they had been youngsters, with Nick branding himself as “the Democrat” in a center college essay. Trump’s election acquired them extra concerned about politics, albeit with Nick leaping into the public sphere earlier, elected in 2023 as Indianapolis’ youngest city-county councilor at age 23.
Home life for the now-25-year-old twins in Indianapolis was a multigenerational melting pot of political views from spiritual conservatives to progressive liberals.
They had been raised by a mom simply out of highschool, a smattering of family members and a disabled veteran father who was in and out of their lives. Nick credit his father’s laborious work and his household’s small companies with shaping his political opinions.
After Nick’s video got here out, Nathan woke as much as a slew of journalists following him on X. He brushed it apart, carrying on along with his morning till a good friend despatched a textual content saying they beloved what Nick had posted.
“Oh God,” he thought earlier than watching it, considering it is likely to be controversial. But after watching, he stated, he thought it was honest.
But the brothers aren’t identified for combative arguments that devolve into shouting matches. While some families could have a relative who now not comes over as a result of estrangement over political disagreements, the twins have navigated their relationship regardless of their political disparities.
“I don’t think we’ve ever even had an argument on politics that even kind of reached the level of beginning to be a shouting match,” stated Nathan.
In a time of increased political polarization, cordiality might sound uncommon, however the Roberts aren’t the solely twins in politics on totally different sides of the aisle who nonetheless preserve a bond.
In 2018, twin sisters Monica Sparks, a Democrat, and Jessica Ann Tyson, a Republican, ran for county commissioner in several districts in Michigan and have saved a heat relationship.
Polarization has destroyed some household relationships, Sparks advised NCS, however she emphasised Americans are all working and dwelling collectively: “left wing, right wing, same bird.”
Said Tyson, “My sister and I, we don’t always see eye to eye, but we do make an investment in our relationship, because we’re sisters and we’re twins.”
Craig DeLuz, a Republican in California working for a US House seat in 2026, and David DeLuz, a Democrat and deputy director of the Office of Civil Rights at California’s transportation division, have championed their variations and talked about fostering wholesome discourse on-line.
Nick and Nathan credited their easygoing nature as key to their civility, and they’ve discovered some widespread floor on a few issues, specifically a love of canines and working in the annual Wheeler Mission Drumstick Dash in Indianapolis.
They had been all the time caught collectively in the similar Advanced Placement courses and shared buddies at school. Their great-grandfather, Carl Brooks, who died in 2021, launched them to maps, fostering a shared curiosity.
“He would show us maps and everything, and we would sit on his lap looking through them. And now we both love maps still to this day, my brother and I do, even despite our disagreements,” stated Nick.
But it will possibly nonetheless be troublesome to search out consensus in a nation the place affective polarization – how a lot folks of differing political events dislike one another – has continued to dramatically reshape how Americans have discourse, the place they get their info and whom they converse with.
Trump critics have checked out the president’s rise to energy as exacerbating variations and rising friction amongst Americans. But these fissures began properly earlier than Trump’s first victory in 2016, with historians citing the 1970s as the time when issues began to turn out to be extra polarized.
The Republican and Democratic events have turn out to be extra ideologically cohesive since then, sharpening political divide.
The rise of social media and 24/7 cable information, politics changing into core components of id, and financial inequality have all contributed to affective polarization, stated Bill Doherty, cofounder of Braver Angels, a nonprofit targeted on bipartisan political dialogue.
For these with differing political beliefs, household gatherings could also be occasions of stress, as debates over hot-button points like abortion, gun management and immigration can devolve into shouting matches.
If a robust subject comes up as somebody passes the mashed potatoes, there are methods to navigate these conversations.
Establishing a heat relationship with the different individual and setting expectations for the dialog can scale back battle in discussing shared political beliefs, stated Dr. Tania Israel, a psychologist who wrote two books on polarization and psychological well being. The objective ought to be understanding the different aspect, not actively difficult their views.
“You don’t want to challenge them because they’re not going to pay any attention to that when you don’t have that warm and trusting relationship with them,” stated Israel.
Nick says he would agree.
“If we want to change hearts and minds, you don’t do it by 30 feet down and telling people how wrong they are. You have to do it through empathy,” he stated.
Where these conversations happen can be essential; dinner desk discussions can appear extra like a grandstanding debate efficiency slightly than a chance for understanding and togetherness, stated Israel. One-on-one time, comparable to a stroll or espresso chat, establishes privateness, which might make it simpler to give attention to how to strengthen the relationship.
The Roberts twins have already got that established relationship, and by listening and not letting issues get too heated, they say they’ve been in a position to preserve a bond the place basic political disagreements aren’t a relationship-ender – even when their political actions have made it laborious to take images collectively.
Also, a moratorium on politics throughout Thanksgiving helped.
“With me and my brother, we talk about politics between us all the time, but at Thanksgiving, politics was not brought up one time,” stated Nathan.