JTA — A bombastic Jewish Republican is unexpectedly at risk of losing his congressional race in a deep-red Florida district seat on Tuesday.

And if Randy Fine does lose, it will be to a Muslim candidate with a track record of harshly criticizing Israel.

Fine, a culture-warring state senator running in Tuesday’s special election for the state’s solid-red sixth district, has seen polls tighten in his race against Josh Weil, a middle-school teacher and political neophyte. A March 22 poll showed Weil trailing by only four points — within the margin of error — and his fundraising haul has dwarfed that of Fine: The Democrat has pulled in $10 million to Fine’s $1 million.

Weil’s campaign slogan: “We can do better than Fine.”

Until very recently, Fine seemed virtually guaranteed to ascend to the seat. US President Donald Trump urged him to run for it back in December, and he won the Republican primary in the Republican district with more than 80% of the vote.

But now — with many voters nationwide disapproving of Trump’s upending of the federal workforce, a nosediving stock market and other drastic changes to the government — the election is seen as one chance to hold an early referendum on his administration. It is taking place on the same day as another Florida congressional race and a vote for a Wisconsin Supreme Court vacancy.

For his part, Fine told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on the eve of the vote that he isn’t worried. “I’m very confident in the outcome,” he said, believing reports of the race’s closeness to be overblown. “We expect to have a really great day on Tuesday.”

But he also acknowledged that he could be facing “a turnout challenge.”

To reinforce his campaign, Fine has zeroed in on his opponent’s religion. Weil, a native of East Meadow, Long Island, was raised by a single mother who he said was a “born-again Christian” and converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim woman in 2010.

Dubbing Weil “Jihad Josh,” Fine accused him on Monday, without evidence, of relying on........

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