Like many Montana voters, Chad Nybo had already cast his ballot when he heard that Greg Gianforte had allegedly assaulted a Guardian reporter late in the day on May 24. Gianforte was running to fill the House seat vacated by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and the election-eve scuffle–during which eyewitnesses and the reporter, Ben Jacobs, said Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck, threw him to the ground, punched him, and broke his glasses–generated international news. As news of the altercation broke, the Montana Secretary of State office fielded inquiries from early voters asking if they could change their ballots. (They couldn’t.)

But Nybo wasn’t among those deterred by the Republican’s aggression. Nybo, the founder of health care software company CrossTx, had worked closely with Gianforte for more than six years at RightNow Technologies, the company Gianforte had founded in Bozeman. Nybo described Gianforte as a compartmentalized executive who didn’t show much emotion, so he was surprised by the altercation. That Gianforte begins his congressional career with a criminal conviction is, to Nybo, somewhat charming.

“That is pretty much the first opportunity I’ve had to see Greg vulnerable, in a place where he didn’t plan to be,” Nybo says. “He strategizes and is careful about how he behaves. It’s kind of nice to know he’s human.”

Earlier today, Gianforte pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and received a six-month deferred sentence that stipulates he must complete an anger-management course, perform 40 hours of community service, and pay $385 in fines and fees. Many in Montana are not as sympathetic as Nybo; three state newspapers rescinded their endorsements of Gianforte after the assault. He will take office after winning 50.2% of the vote; two-thirds of ballots were cast before his scuffle with the reporter. During the election, Gianforte received little hometown support in Bozeman, the center of Montana’s tech community. Gallatin County, where Gianforte lives and where he founded RightNow, favored Democrat Rob Quist by 13.4 percentage points. Furthermore, many in the tech community Gianforte helped build are distancing themselves from him in light of his recent quarrel and his past politics.

Gianforte apologized to Jacobs during his victory speech, and did so again in June while promising $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists. “My physical response to your legitimate question was unprofessional, unacceptable, and unlawful,” he said in the written apology to Jacobs, which was part of an agreement to settle potential civil claims (Jacobs received nearly $4,500 in restitution). The apologies, however, come after Gianforte’s campaign initially blamed Jacobs for the incident, issuing a statement that was contradicted by Jacobs’s recording of the incident.

Abby Schlatter, cofounder of Bozeman firm commonFont, was incensed when she heard Gianforte attacked a reporter. “It’s flat-out embarrassing for Montana to have a representative that has acted that way in a public forum,” Schlatter says. “I don’t think it represents how we Montanans value and treat each other.”

Susan Carstensen, founder of Yellowstone Growth Partners and the former CFO of RightNow, was in Seattle for a board meeting on the day of the election. “I walked in, and [the assault] is all anyone wanted to talk about,” she says. “I was in Utah for another board meeting the next week, and again, that was the first topic of conversation. The image of Montana is terrible.”