WASHINGTON Indiana is one of a handful of states with bipartisan representation in the U.S. Senate. Earlier this week, one of its senators voted for the first portion of President Donald Trump s much-publicized arms deal with Saudi Arabia .

It wasnt the Republican.

Freshman lawmaker Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) has tried to use his influence so far in the Senate, including his role on the foreign relations committee, to urge the Saudis to be less brutal in their bloody U.S.-backed fight against pro-Iran rebels in Yemen all the while respecting their decades-long partnership with Washington and condemning Iranian adventurism.

In doing so, hes modeled a new kind of humanitarian advocacy on the GOP side of the aisle, signaling that compassionate conservative internationalism can survive in the age of Trump. Hes also boosting the rising wave of mainstream bipartisan skepticism toward Saudi Arabia associated with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and others.

On Tuesday, Young became one of only four Republicans to vote against Trumps plan to sell the Saudis more than $500 million worth of precision-guided munitions to be used in Yemen. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chair of the foreign relations committee, blasted opponents of the sale, saying it was a case of cutting your nose off to spite your face; top Republicans argued that the precision-guided weapons would actually help the Saudis do less harm. (Democratic Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly and four other conservative Democrats also broke with their party leaders to vote in favor of the sale. Opposition to the deal reached a striking level: Nearly half the Senate voted against it.)

Two of the other GOP votes against the sale came from familiar critics of U.S. foreign policy: Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah). The third was from Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who also voted to block a sale to the Saudis last fall. Youngs decision, activists told HuffPost, was the most notable. Its difficult to write off the former Marines critique of the Saudi-led war as the product of an isolationist bent or ties to a blue-leaning state, and hes no outlier in the GOP hes a former House member with a conservative record. One activist working on whipping votes against the deal told HuffPost that Youngs move was expected to attract far greater GOP opposition, particularly if the vote had been delayed slightly longer. The activist spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private negotiations over the vote with Hill staffers.

That hope wasnt borne out, not least because the vote was seen as a pivotal early congressional judgment on the new Republican administrations foreign policy. But in a HuffPost interview, Young suggested the matter is far from settled. He remains concerned by the controversial war and wants lawmakers to weigh in on it again, he said.