9 voters in New York City's only red congressional district talk Trump and flipping the House

Dennis Van Tine/AP

Donald Trump campaigns in Staten Island in April 2016.

• Staten Island and a chunk of South Brooklyn will decide whether to keep or replace New York City's lone congressional Republican on Tuesday. 
• Polls have Republican Rep. Dan Donovan and Democratic challenger Max Rose within single digits of each other. 
• Voters at Rose's polling place on Tuesday - including some who voted for President Donald Trump - told INSIDER they support Rose in large part because they want a check on Trump. 

Staten Island has long been New York City's most conservative borough. Some New Yorkers like to think of it as more akin to New Jersey than the Big Apple. 

But Staten Islanders and a chunk of South Brooklyn will decide on Tuesday whether to break from tradition and replace New York City's lone Republican in Congress with a Democrat.

Their choice is between incumbent Republican Rep. Dan Donovan, who has tacked toward the center since seeking President Donald Trump's endorsement in his contentious primary, and Max Rose, a 31-year-old Army veteran and former health care executive who's framing himself as an independent voice. Recent polls have the candidates within single digits of each other.  

Issues that came up in conversations with Staten Island voters on Tuesday: traffic congestion, the opioid crisis, and reining in the president. 

Read more: Here's what a dozen voters in one of the country's most competitive Senate races think about politics right now

Trump won Staten Island by 17 points, despite the fact that registered Democrats outnumber Republicans on the island by nearly two-to-one. 

One such voter, Steven Gross - a 51-year-old dad of two who has lived on Staten Island all his life - cast his ballot for Trump in 2016 despite being a registered Democrat, but voted for Rose on Tuesday because he wants to see a check on the president. 

"I don't want to let him do everything that he wants to do," he said in an interview with INSIDER at his Staten Island polling place, PS 16, on Tuesday.