For Indiana Republicans Who Defied Trump, It Got Personal

Republican lawmakers in Indiana delivered a rebuke to President Trump this week by rejecting a new redistricting map. The GOP has a 40-10 advantage in the Senate, but 21 Republicans joined the Democrats in rejecting the map—despite heavy pressure from Trump himself and state GOP leaders. The ferocity of that pressure, however, might have backfired. Comments from some of the Republican lawmakers who voted against:

• "I wish that President Trump would change his tone," GOP state Sen. Jean Leising, 76, tells CNN. "You wouldn't change minds by being mean. And the efforts were mean-spirited from the get-go," she said. "If you were wanting to change votes, you would probably try to explain why we should be doing this, in a positive way. That never happened, so, you know, I think they get what they get."
• State Sen. Greg Goode also cited the pressure and threats. "Misinformation. Cruel social media posts. Over-the-top pressure from inside and outside the statehouse. Threats of primaries. Threats of violence. Acts of violence," Goode said Senate floor Thursday, per ABC News. "Friends, we're better than this, are we not?"

• "Hoosiers are very independent," state Sen. Vaneta Becker, 76, tells the Washington Post. "And they're not used to Washington trying to tell us what to do."
• Echoing that sentiment was state Sen. Sue Glick. "Hoosiers are a hardy lot, and they don't like to be threatened. They don't like to be intimidated. They don't like to be bullied in any fashion. And I think a lot of them responded with, 'That isn't going to work,'" she said. "And it didn't."
• Other Republicans cited personal reasons for their "no" votes. State Sen. Mike Bohacek, who has a daughter with Down syndrome, said he grew angry when Trump called Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz "seriously retarded" in a social media post. The president's "choices of words have consequences," wrote Bohacek on social media.
• State Sen. Greg Walker grew emotional on the floor of the Senate this week when recalling that his decision to vote in opposition crystallized while holding a constituent's baby. "As I thought about the future for that child, where we accept that intimidation is normal, I shall refuse the offer, for the sake of that child and the future of the state," he said, per NPR.
• In the other camp was GOP state Sen. R. Michael Young. "I don't want to wake up the morning after the election in November and find out we lost the House of Representatives by one vote," he said in pushing for the new map, which likely would have increased the state's GOP representation in the US House from 7-2 to 9-0.