New Jersey GOP congressional candidate Seth Grossman. Image by facebook

A Republican Jewish candidate who said “diversity is a bunch of crap” is down big in his southern New Jersey House race, which is now set to elect a Democrat for the first time in 24 years, a recent poll shows.

Seth Grossman trails State Senator Jeff Van Drew by 23 points in a district centered around Atlantic City that went for President Trump by five points, the Stockton University survey released Sept. 19 shows. Grossman has tried to align himself with Trump, plastering the district with “Make America Great Again” signs.

But besides the Republican candidate’s divisive statements, the district has also soured on Trump, the poll shows.

Only 41% of the 535 likely voters surveyed said they thought the president was doing a good or excellent job, compared with 49% who graded him as doing poorly.

The race also shows a big enthusiasm gap between Democratic and Republican voters.

Nearly 90% of Democrats said they were backing Van Drew, compared with just 65% of Republicans backing Grossman.

The GOP pulled its support for him in July after it was revealed that he had shared articles from white nationalist websites on his Facebook page.

“Bigotry has no place in society—let alone the U.S. House of Representatives,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers said at the time.

Grossman defended his diversity statements to the Forward over the summer.

“I’ve looked at each comment I made, and I looked at the event that prompted each comment,” the candidate said. “I think that the comments I made were a fairly reasonable reaction to the event that had taken place.”

Contact Ben Fractenberg at fractenberg@forward.com or on Twitter, @fractenberg

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