Any doubt Leonard Lance had that the Trump presidency was going to a pose a problem for him was most certainly erased 33 days after the inauguration.
Unlike several of his other Republican counterparts in New Jersey, Lance returned home for the February recess and held two town halls. More than a thousand people attended each one. Outside, hundreds protested. Inside the community college hall, it was even more raucous. In fact, it resembled a pitch-forked mob.
He stood gamely, ever the gentleman, and took the heat. The constituents wanted to know what he would do to save the Affordable Care Act. They wanted no part of a Mexican border wall. And the boos became even more intense when Lance told the crowd he would not support a proposed bill that would require President Trump to release his tax returns.
It was brave, but did little to stop the rising opposition to a Republican who has been long-respected in New Jersey.
"It’s not just Democrats or liberals who are upset with how things are going," said Minnie Borrero of Succasunna, N.J. "As a Republican, I am also upset with how things are going. And I hope he starts voting using common sense instead of party line."
Lance has represented the 7th Congressional District of New Jersey since 2008 and before that he served in the state legislature for 17 years. He’s been re-elected four times and is one of a small group in Congress who could still be considered moderate. He's the last moderate Republican house member in New Jersey.
"Lance has represented me for years, I've always thought he was a nice guy," said Margaret Illis of Berkeley Heights. "He went to my son's Eagle Scout court of honor."
Illis voted for Lance mostly because she liked his environmental protection work. Years went by and she voted for him without closely following his voting record. But after Trump was elected, she took a closer look and her opinion of Lance changed.
"I realized that his environmental record since he's gone to D.C. is terrible," Illis said. "He supported the Keystone XL Pipeline. He's consistently supported relaxing environmental protections He went from defending the environment in New Jersey to supporting the Republican agenda in D.C."
Now Illis is one of the leaders of the local anti-Trump group that is trying to flip the house. Their main complaint is that Lance and the Republican Party have become too conservative.
Up until 2012, Lance voted with President Obama 47 percent of the time. But that dropped to 5 percent by 2016, according to Congressional Quarterly. He voted against the Affordable Care Act, against funding Planned Parenthood and had a 100 percent rating from the National Rifle Association. But with his re-election in peril, Lance has focused steadily on presenting himself as moderate.
"The Republican Party should be the party of opportunity for everybody and everybody should be treated as an individual and those are my core beliefs," he told WNYC. "I am a lifelong Eisenhower Republican and I believe that Republicans will vote for me in this congressional district."
In a televised debate, he mentioned his endorsement from Gabby Gifford's foundation, which advocates for gun control. He also said he was ranked the 13th most Bipartisan member of congress.
But being a moderate can be an exercise in frustration in the current Republican Party, says Ross Baker, distinguished professor of political science at Rutgers University.
"There's no question about it. I think as that district has gone in a more Democratic direction, Congressman Lance's votes have gone a more conservative direction," Baker said.
That doesn't necessarily mean Lance has changed what he believes in. "In a caucus that has become so resolutely conservative, it's very difficult to go to caucus meetings and sort of feel like the illegitimate child," Baker said.
Lance has faced constant pressure since the Trump election, with almost weekly protests at his district office in Westfield, N.J. And then his prospects got tougher when Democratic candidate Tom Malinowski won the primary in June.
Malinowski’s family fled communist Poland and moved to New Jersey when he was six. He worked for Human Rights Watch for 12 years, and then in the State Department for presidents Clinton and Obama. Malinowski focuses on two points: Lance has not stood up to Trump or conservatives in the Republican Party and he is not an effective legislator.
"I can't think of a single thing that has changed in the United States of America or for the people of our district on health care on gun violence on immigration on the environment on the Gateway tunnel because of something you did Congressman," he said during a televised debate in October. "You've renamed a post office. That was one bill that you passed."
Lance fired back:
"My opponent just disparaged John Basilone, who was a great hero of World War II," Lance said. "I passed the Excellence in Mental Health Act. I passed the Breast Cancer Education Act. I passed the anti-scamming act."
Now Lance is fighting to prove to voters he’s still the moderate they always liked. But that has made it hard for him to draw enough of a distinction from Malinowski, so he’s reverted to calling the Democrat a carpetbagger, because he spent most of his career in Washington.
Malinowski lives in Rocky Hill, just six miles from his childhood home where his mother still lives.
"I'm absolutely proud of the work that I did in Washington D.C.," Malinowski said. "I got more legislation passed as a non-member of the United States Congress than Leonard Lance has ever gotten passed as a member of the United States Congress. The bottom line for voters in this district is that both Leonard Lance and I are from New Jersey. The question is which one of us is going to stand up effectively for New Jersey."
The New Jersey 7th is home to some of the state’s most prominent politicians, people like former Governors Tom Kean and Christine Todd Whitman, both notable moderates. They live in what is sometimes called Republican Horse Country: the western exurbs that look more New England than New Jersey. And at the center is Bedminster, home to Trump National Golf Course.
As it turns out, it is this part of the district that polls show is becoming the most difficult for Leonard Lance. It’s where well-educated, affluent, moderate Republicans find themselves — in a party that no longer represents them and with a congressman who has little power to do anything about it.