Candidates determined to keep Kansas’ U.S. Senate seats in Republican hands quarreled Saturday over immigration, health care and federal spending, but no topic was more debated than who is the most friendly and in step with President Donald Trump.

In front of a standing-room only crowd at the 2020 Kansas Republican Party convention, U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, former Secretary of State Kris Kobach and state Senate President Susan Wagle argued over which of them was the most conservative and would be Trump’s most loyal foot soldier in the U.S. Senate.

Claiming that he’s voted with the president 98 percent of the time during his two terms in the U.S. House, Marshall pledged to “keep standing beside this president to stop the left’s socialist agenda.”

Kris Kobach’s booth at the Kansas Republican Party convention included a cutout of President Donald Trump.

But Kobach argued that since most of the legislation considered by Congress isn’t controversial, virtually all Republicans — even many Democrats — vote “with the president” most of the time.

“So, that’s not an answer to the question,” he said.

Kobach won the 2018 Republican primary for Kansas governor with Trump’s backing, but lost the general election to Democrat Laura Kelly. For many Republicans, that’s a cause for concern heading into what is likely to be the state’s most competitive race for a U.S. Senate seat in decades. Longtime U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts is retiring.

Republicans would be risking a seat they’ve controlled since the Great Depression by nominating Kobach, Wagle said.

“Oh, there’s no question we’d lose,” she said in an interview after the debate.

Kobach pointed to his two winning campaigns for Kansas secretary of state: “I can say that in this presidential election year I certainly will win again.”

The frontrunner for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination is Kansas Sen. Barbara Bollier, a former Republican who switched parties last year. She’s raised nearly $1.2 million since launching her campaign in October.

Marshall, whose 1st Congressional District covers roughly two-thirds of the state, is the runaway leader in fundraising on the Republican side: $1.9 million on hand as of Sept. 30, the end of the last reporting period. He hasn’t made his year-end fundraising report public. Kobach finished the year with $190,387 in his campaign account, and after loaning her campaign $275,000, Wagle ended the year with $522,683.

Marshall and Kobach have personal relationships with Trump, and both claimed to have met with him recently. Wagle can’t say that, so she touted her record as a leader in both the Kansas House and Senate.