In May 2017, former Republican Rep. Leonard Lance crossed party lines and voted against the GOP health care repeal, a proposal deeply unpopular with voters in New Jersey’s 7th District, which he had represented in Washington for nearly a decade.

A year later, Lance again joined Democrats to oppose the Republican tax cut bill. Although he supported portions of the bill and its overall intent, he decided to vote against it because it would hurt the ability of his wealthiest constituents to deduct the value of their state and local taxes.

Put simply, Lance was doing what a member of Congress is supposed to do: look out for the individual needs of the people who live in his district. Then he lost his reelection bid.

The 2018 election cycle was particularly brutal for moderate Republicans like Lance who, despite efforts to distance themselves from the agenda and rhetoric of President Donald Trump, could not overcome their affiliation with the party he now leads.

“The results were based, I believe in large measure, on the president,” he said in a recent interview. “I would hope, moving forward, that voters could pick and choose based on the views of individual candidates.”