New Jersey Republicans are having a tough time this fall running for office in a state that pretty much detests President Donald Trump.

First it was the gloomy forecasts of the purported "blue wave" swelling in once-safe GOP strongholds. And now, Republican candidates in competitive races for the House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate are scrambling for cover amid the firestorm over Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's Supreme Court nominee accused of attempted rape as a teenager.

Take Leonard Lance, for example, the Hunterdon County Republican running for a fifth term in the 7th Congressional District, which stretches from the rural hamlets of Warren County to the affluent suburbs west of Newark.

Lance was put on the defensive last week after his opponent, Democrat Tom Malinowski, released a recording of Lance talking last month to a group of college Republicans at Rutgers University.

Officials:White House is not involved with FBI investigation into Kavanaugh allegations

Related:Cory Booker walks out on Brett Kavanaugh vote, then returns after delay plan reached

At one point, Lance seems to cast doubt on the credibility of Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who accused Kavanaugh of attempting to rape her at a Maryland house party when they were both teenagers in the early 1980s.

"I think Judge Kavanaugh is a brilliant judge,'' Lance says, with the words featured in a brief digital attack ad produced by the Malinowski campaign. "I tend not to believe the charges."

The clip attempts to cast Lance as a resident member of the entitled White Male wing of the party that takes a dismissive tone to the legitimate grievances of victimized women. "Leonard Lance's first instinct — the woman is lying,'' the ad's graphic says.

Lance's campaign said it was ludicrous to suggest that Lance was indifferent toward women's issues — he got an award in Hunterdon County for his advocacy on behalf of battered women in 2012. He was one of the four House Republicans who supported a historic pay equity law for women in 2009 and among a handful who supported a renewed push for the Equal Rights Amendment.

In an interview, Lance said his remarks were taken out of context. He said they were made at a time when Ford's lawyers had said she would not testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"I cast doubt on anybody who doesn’t testify,'' Lance said, referring to his remarks made on Sept. 18. "I think you have to testify if you accuse somebody either in a criminal setting, civil setting or a confirmation setting."

In a more extended account of his remarks at Rutgers, Lance repeatedly touches on that theme. He says Ford's accusations are "serious charges, but certainly we have a right in this country to confront our accusers, and if the person who has accused the judge of that behavior refuses to testify, then I think that that would not be a good thing.''

Still, the explosive confirmation battle that has riveted the nation also has the potential of reshaping the race in the 7th District, once reliable Republican red and now increasingly purple. There are still 7,800 more registered Republicans than Democrats, but that's down sharply from nearly an 18,000-voter advantage from just two years ago.

Even though the district is home to Trump's Bedminster golf club, Hillary Clinton carried the district by 1 point in 2016. It is also home to a large number of college-educated voters, who have tended to oppose Trump.

And female voters are particularly hostile to Trump — a recent Monmouth University poll said 33 percent of women approved of the way Trump was doing his job while 61 percent disapproved. The district has also become a hotbed of grass-roots activism, with protesters routinely camping out at Lance's Westfield office this year.

Yet Lance has a reputation as an independent-minded moderate, which he began fashioning as a state legislator in the 1990s. He's a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of more than 40 House members who promote bipartisan solutions. His moderate Republican roots run deep — his late father, Wesley, served as a prominent state senator and one of the delegates of the state constitution ratified in 1947.

Yet the swiftly changing demographics of the district are forcing him to walk a political tightrope. He needs to placate the Democratic-leaning independents who are determined to register their disgust with Trump at the ballot in November. But on the other hand, he can't win without a large turnout of the Republican base.

That is why Lance has carefully navigated a middle ground, backing Trump on issues like the decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear pact — and endorsing his relatively uncontroversial first Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch — while opposing Trump's tax overhaul, which is unpopular in a district with high property taxes.

And while he's adopted a wait-and-see posture on Kavanaugh, Lance echoed Senate Republicans' unsubstantiated charge that the Democrats orchestrated a late-stage leak of Ford's allegations.

"I think it is clear beyond dispute that the Democrats leaked her name," Lance said. "Republicans didn’t, and if Dianne Feinstein had appropriately asked the FBI to investigate this ... [the investigation] would have been done privately."

Yet Lance was also the target of partisan wrath. Democrats, including Gov. Phil Murphy, condemned Lance's remarks last week. Malinowski, meanwhile, dismissed Lance's explanation, noting that Ford initially requested an FBI investigation before agreeing to testify.

"To cast doubt before you hear her or the person she was accusing, that instinctive dismissal against anyone who makes accusations against a powerful man ... is exactly what discourages people from coming forward in these cases,'' Malinowski said. "They can expect to be dismissed, disbelieved."

Lance said Ford was "very credible" during her testimony before the Judiciary Committee last week. But then he maintained a posture of neutrality that suits his strategy of navigating a middle path amid a sensitive issue.

"I thought she did a fine job and I thought Judge Kavanaugh was credible,'' he said.

And shortly after Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., secured a commitment Friday to delay a final confirmation vote for one week, Lance issued a statement endorsing the move, saying an "expeditious" FBI investigation was "in the best interest of the nation."