When Indianapolis city councilor Nick Roberts found himself on the opposite side from his identical twin in a high-profile public debate over redistricting in Indiana, he realized that he needed to clear up some confusion.
“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,” he said in a video posted to his social media after the event. “He’s still my brother, and I care about him,” he added.
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Roberts, a Democrat, posted the video clarifying that he had not switched sides after receiving “nonstop” messages from people following the public debate in which he and his Republican brother Nathan both appeared earlier this month.
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“A lot of people didn’t know I had a twin or Republican brother at all,” he tells TIME. “So I decided it would be easier just to address everyone, because once I’ve been able to talk to people about the very odd situation, they understand.”
Nick, who is 25 and was elected to the Indianapolis City-County Council in 2023, received a strong, largely positive reaction to his video announcement. He now hopes to use the moment to set an example of how political differences need not tear friendships and families apart.
“I am of the opinion that isolating people and cutting them out of your family due to politics isn’t how I want to be as a family, but beyond that, it is also ineffective,” he tells TIME. “As a party, we need to be more welcoming of debate and conversation, especially when it isn’t easy, to try to change hearts and minds.”
Nathan tells TIME that his brother is “different” than others on the opposite side of the aisle, and that their relationship defies these political boundaries. Part of this, it seems, comes from the respect they afford one another in conversations about their disagreements; he says he knows and trusts that his brother’s arguments are based on research.
“I don’t think we have really ever had any heated discussions about stuff, despite me and him disagreeing on 90% of things. At least for me, I would say because I think he is the smartest liberal I know,” Nathan says. “When we do have a disagreement, he is one of the few people who can correct me when my argument is inconsistent.”
Nick acknowledges that part of their civility stems from this good faith—something he says often lacks in online political discussions between strangers.
“It is a lot easier to hate someone on the internet when you either will never see them in person, or hate them in person if you feel like they’re a bad person,” Nick says. “But those feelings of negativity do absolutely nothing to get our country out of its very sad current state of negativity, so I just try to promote positivity, discussion and of course Democrats whenever I can.”
So how did two identical twins end up so far apart politically? Nick says that he and his brother first began to notice the split between them in middle school.
“Funnily enough, I was recently reading something we wrote in 8th Grade where I talked about being the Democratic twin and he talked about being the Republican twin,” he says. “I do think I’ve stayed very consistent in my politics, and he has changed on many issues, but overall that much has stayed pretty similar.”
Nick first got involved in politics in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s first election to office in 2016.
“I was very frustrated with the direction our country was going in,” he says.
After applying to a few internships in the Democratic Party and volunteering on campaigns, he ran for Indianapolis City-County Council in 2023. In his first term as a councilor, he has prioritized public safety, investing in mental health programs and infrastructure.
Nathan does not hold public office, but earlier this year he co-founded a nonprofit called Save Heritage Indiana that campaigns against “mass migration,” arguing that it dilutes Indiana’s identity. His nonprofit echoes the aggressive anti-immigration rhetoric and deportation efforts that have defined the first year of Trump’s second term.
Prior to the group’s creation in September, Nathan had been very vocal about his support of Trump since his first run for office in 2015/2016.
“In high school, I was the most outspoken advocate in favor of Trump and often pestered my teachers about their political beliefs so I could expand my knowledge,” he says. “In 2020 and 2021, I attended anti-COVID lockdown and vaccine mandate protests outside the Governor’s mansion and outside the statehouse.”
Nathan tells TIME that he believes immigration is the most important issue of our time.
The political differences between the twins hadn’t been widely known outside of the family until the last couple of weeks, when Indiana was thrust into the national spotlight as it became the latest target of the Trump Administration’s campaign to redraw congressional districts around the country to favor Republicans.
When even Republicans in the state pushed back and voted down the effort, the topic became a matter of fierce debate. It came to a head for the brothers when they both spoke, on opposite sides, at a public hearing on the redistricting bill on Dec. 2 at the Indiana Statehouse.
“So I went up there and the guy who was running the committee was like, ‘didn’t you already go?’ And I said ‘no that was my twin but you said his name twice so he said I could go in his place,’ and then I gave my speech,” Nathan says.
“Afterwards I heard through the grapevine that after I spoke he thought a practical joke was being played and that we were the same person going twice,” he adds.
The bill, which was introduced by Indiana Republicans at Trump’s request, was eventually defeated in the state Senate.
Despite their differences, the twins are able to debate the big issues and still show up to family gatherings together.
“I think it is a lesson that even though I disagree with my brother on nearly every single political issue, he and I can still be very civil, and debate fiercely on these issues yet still care about each other,” Nick says. “I will continue to try to convince him of my viewpoints every day even though I know it is often a losing battle, unfortunately.”
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