The three candidates for the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from Indiana spent 90 minutes agreeing Monday night – but also disputing one another's honesty and sincerity.

In their third debate ahead of the May 8 primary election, U.S. Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita and former state lawmaker Mike Braun said they favored building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, President Donald Trump's trade war with China, reworking the Iran nuclear deal, allowing schools to arm teachers and imposing term limits on members of Congress, and they opposed any gun control measures and a pathway to citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants until a border wall is built.

But they bickered constantly at Ramada Plaza Hotel and Conference Center over who would be the most conservative, Trump-supporting candidate to take on Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly in the Nov. 6 general election.

Braun presented himself as a “real world” political outsider who built a successful business and is most like Trump. But Messer, R-6th, called Braun a former “lifetime Democrat,” and Rokita, R-4th, accused him of voting 45 times to raise taxes.

Rokita portrayed himself as the only candidate who has never voted to raise taxes and “never will” and that, as a former Indiana secretary of state, “I know the state, and the state knows me.” But Messer said Rokita had voted against Trump's position on federal spending legislation and has falsely claimed to have Trump's backing.

Messer said “I am who I say I am” and that his opponents “are not who they say they are.” Rokita said Messer is “not who he says he is” for, among other things, claiming to be from Greensburg when he owns a house in Virginia.

Braun, a Jasper resident who owns an auto parts distribution business, depicted Messer and Brownsburg resident Rokita as career politicians who “vote alike 95 percent of the time, and they've been part of the problem” of the government's inability to balance its budget and reduce the national debt.

Naturally, each of the three spurned the others' assertions, with Rokita talking over Messer at various points, once telling him, “That's false, that's a lie.” Before the arguing had even begun, debate moderator Pat Miller of radio station WOWO told the audience, “I'm a little tired of the butt-kicking” among the candidates in their campaign appearances, advertising and previous debates.

Monday's debate, the first hour of which was televised statewide, was part of the Allen County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner. A capacity crowd of more than 500 bought tickets, according to county GOP Chairman Steve Shine.

There were some differences of degree in the candidates' replies to questions asked by journalists on the debate panel.

Rokita would limit House members to 12 years in the chamber, while Messer and Braun preferred a limit of six years (This is Messer's sixth year in the House and Rokita's eighth year.). Braun and Messer each said the economy is the nation's most pressing issue, while Rokita said the $20 trillion national debt is. Braun and Messer want to eliminate the 60-vote “filibuster” threshold in the 100-member Senate for ending debate on legislation; Rokita said senators should have to remain on the floor, speaking continuously, to delay votes on bills.

Rokita was the lone candidate to say that 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton should be put in prison, even though she is not charged with a crime. He also stressed that the U.S.-Mexico wall should be made of concrete and not fence materials.

Each of the three evaded the question of whether Mexico should have to pay for the wall, as Trump has demanded. Each said fighting the opioid addiction crisis must be a combination of treatment and law enforcement, not one or the other, and each backed giving communities the authority over whether needle-exchange programs should be implemented.

And each sent out emails claiming to have won the Fort Wayne debate after the program had concluded.

Their last debate will be next Monday night in Indianapolis.

bfrancisco@jg.net