'MAGA fever dream come to life': Here’s what makes this GOP rep’s political approach so 'distinct'

US Representative Troy E. Nehls (R-TX) in just the first 70 days of 2024 has "made a name for himself" in Congress by "earning seemingly endless headlines and sparking controversial news cycles," according to a Sunday, March 10 Daily Beast report, and in the process has been criticized by fellow GOP lawmakers.

"To hear him tell it, that’s the idea," the Beast emphasizes.

The Texas congressman, following in ex-President Donald Trump’s footsteps, the news outlet notes "doesn’t care about offending; he seems to relish in it. He isn’t worried about being a bully. And whether it comes to perceptions of him or Trump, Nehls doesn’t think the public should either."

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The Beast reports:

When Nehls made it to Congress, he was a Trump loyalist, but he was open to working across the aisle. At his first presidential address to Congress in 2021, Nehls cornered the newly inaugurated Biden as he made his way to the speaker’s podium. The backbench Texas Republican then famously offered to help him tackle criminal justice reform.

Since then, redistricting shifted Nehls’ constituency significantly. He was first elected to a seat Trump carried by one point in 2020. In 2022, Nehls ran for a seat that Trump won by 16.

Perhaps nothing tells the story of that shift more vividly than the change in Nehls’ State of the Union demeanor. Last Thursday, when Biden addressed Congress, Nehls stood in the back, showing-off a T-shirt adorned with Trump’s mugshot and the rallying cry 'Never Surrender.'

Wearing a blazer and an American flag bow tie around his neck—without a collar—Nehls looked like a MAGA fever dream come to life. He appeared ready to pounce at every Biden slip-up.

"I didn’t come up here to make friends," Nehls recently told the Beast.

The news outlet also notes:

Even by the standards of a House Republican majority that has gleefully discarded norms of decorum and discretion, Nehls is distinct for so often saying the quiet part out loud—boldly acknowledging political calculations reserved for closed-door discussions and slinging insults that others hide behind anonymously.

And even by the standards of a party run by a man who demands nothing less than total allegiance, Nehls’ support for Trump—along with his penchant for attention-grabbing stunts to profess it—is notable.

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"Troy Nehls is an extremely good politician," Sri Kulkarni, a Democrat who ran against Nehls 2020, told the Beast. "And I don’t mean that necessarily in a good way."

The Daily Beast's full report is here (subscription required).