April 4, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET
Texas Rep. Troy Nehls walked down the U.S. Capitol steps last month, stopping to talk to a reporter after puffing on a cigar.
The outgoing Rep. Nehls, a Make America Great Again loyalist, is in the final sprint of his congressional career and will likely be replaced in January by an incoming Rep. Nehls: His elder twin brother, who’s running to represent Texas’ 22nd District.
Trever Nehls is a new member in a growing group of candidates across the country towing a family legacy as they seek to follow in the footsteps of their siblings, spouses, parents or grandparents in pursuit of political office.
The field features New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s daughter Stefany Shaheen, Beah Bayh of the Indiana Democratic dynasty, President John F. Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Christine Pelosi. Nehls, 57, could become the first identical twin in U.S. history to replace a sibling in Congress.
“I’m a little taller than he is. I think I’m in better shape than he is, so physically there is a little bit of difference there,” Nehls jokingly told USA TODAY. “But from a, let’s say, political ideology standpoint, we’re pretty much aligned.”
Similarities, possible differences lie ahead between twins
The twins joined the military one day apart in 1998. They built houses next door to each other in a small-town Houston suburb in 2007. As children they wore identical clothes, referred to by family as “the twins.” The duo had already spoken on the phone three times before Nehls’ morning interview with USA TODAY. One difference? Trever parts his hair to the right while his brother styles his combover to the left.
Occasionally a raucous member of Congress, the current Rep. Nehls has remained a devoted ally of President Donald Trump. Still, he’s leaving Congress with some lingering questions from critics about his tenure during his three terms in the U.S. House.
The Office of Congressional Conduct referred an inquiry to the Republican-led House Ethics Committee after finding probable cause in 2024 that he “may have converted campaign committee funds to personal use.”
He made a fiery exit from the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus over qualms about other members’ approach to leadership. Rep. Nehls also faced allegations of stolen valor related to his military service. And Democrats have long scrutinized his past career in law enforcement with accusations of misconduct, including being fired over concerns about his handling of evidence.
Nehls has said his campaign complied with federal law and addressed inquiries into alleged behavior as political retribution. In defense of his military background, he told the Texas Tribune in 2024 that “there are no lengths to which the establishment won’t go to discredit me.”
In response to the allegations, Trever Nehls said the instances involving his brother were “politically motivated without question.”
“I don’t think anybody believed the allegations, which is why he was elected as the sheriff,” Trever Nehls said, adding that local residents would say that his brother “would arguably be one of the best sheriffs” in Fort Bend County history.
But even as Troy Nehls is widely expected to trade places with Trever Nehls, he’ll still be tied to politics as his brother campaigns across their ruby-red district in the Houston suburbs, once represented by embattled George W. Bush-era House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
Trever Nehls won the Republican primary in his home district last month, and he’ll face off against Democrat Marquette Greene-Scott in the general election. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report calls the district solidly Republican.
How a 20-foot inflatable Donald Trump led Trever Nehls to Wisconsin
Trever Nehls was born five minutes before his brother on April 7, 1968. The youngest sons of former Dodge County, Wisconsin, Sheriff Edwin Nehls, were raised in the Badger State before settling in Texas as adults. “When I think of how this all started with me, it’s really as a result of my father in public service,” Nehls said.
The brothers both joined the Army and then started respective careers in law enforcement. Trever has previously followed his younger brother into public office. The elder Nehls twin succeeded Rep. Nehls as Fort Bend County constable – an elected officer for specific county precincts – but then lost a race to replace his brother as Fort Bend County Sheriff in 2020.
Trever Nehls was also defeated in a 2022 race for Fort Bend County judge by three percentage points.
Throughout the summer of 2024, Trever Nehls flew back and forth to Wisconsin to support Trump’s reelection bid in the swing state that’s a must-win for both parties. But why Wisconsin? The Midwestern state was a pickup on Trump’s path to victory, while Republicans like Nehls were already bullish about his chances in Texas.
“I packed up my car, and I told my wife and my family, I said, ‘Listen, I’m going to go up to Wisconsin, and I’m going to work with the Wisconsin GOP to help President Trump,'” Trever Nehls recalled.
He lugged a 20-foot inflatable Trump to county fairs, a Midwestern summer staple, to energize potential supporters and register them to vote. Trump would ask to see the brothers after his rallies, and Trever Nehls said that “he would ask us, ‘How am I doing in Wisconsin?’ I said, ‘Mr. President, you’re winning Wisconsin.'”
The brothers also convinced Team Trump to hold a rally in October 2024 – one month before Election Day – in Juneau, Wisconsin, the county seat of Dodge County where their father and brother both served as sheriff.
“It was one of the proudest moments for Troy and I to think we got the president or the candidate then to come to our little hometown where we grew up, went to St. John’s Elementary and then Dodge County or Dodgeland High School,” Trever Nehls said.
He worked in the state up until Trump’s Badger State victory over then-Vice President Kamala Harris, even toting the Trump inflatable to Green Bay Packers games in backyards near Lambeau Field.
‘I want my own identity’
On Nov. 29, Rep. Nehls announced he wouldn’t seek reelection. He wrote that he decided to retire and “after conversations with my beautiful bride and my girls over the Thanksgiving holiday,” he planned “to focus on my family and return home after this Congress.”
Rep. Nehls informed the president that he would not seek a fourth term, but his brother planned to run for the seat. “I think President Trump was excited about that because he knew what he was going to get,” Trever Nehls said. “It’s not like we didn’t know each other.”
Trump then backed his brother on Dec. 4. “It is my Honor to endorse MAGA Warrior TREVER NEHLS, who is running to represent the incredible people of Texas’ 22nd Congressional District,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
“Trever Nehls has my Complete and Total Endorsement,” he continued. “HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
Nehls said the district includes rapidly growing areas outside of Houston that depend on federal funding for transportation development, homeland security and flood mitigation nearly a decade after the destruction from Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
“I admire my twin brother for what he’s been able to accomplish,” he said, adding that “I feel there’ll always be that idea, ‘Oh, is he like his brother Troy? How is he different from his brother Troy?'”
It’s still too soon to say what could set the pair apart.
“I will forge my own path,” Nehls said. He continued, “I will establish my own identity and whatever that identity is, I think it’s early to tell because we’re still nine, 10 months away from being sworn in.”
This time next year, Nehls is favored to find his own room inside the House.
