Ohio's Republican governor candidates: I'm most like Donald Trump. No, I am.

The Republican nomination for Ohio governor might come down to who loves President Donald Trump more.

And who's least like current Republican governor John Kasich.

At least that's what it looked like when the four Republican gubernatorial candidates spoke in Clermont County right after sunrise Saturday morning.

"This is Trump country," Clermont County GOP Chairman David Uible told the crowd of 300 Republicans at the Oasis Golf Club outside Loveland.

All four candidates - Attorney General Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Jon Husted, U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor - praised Trump at the event hosted by the Clermont Republican Party. That went over well with the crowd.

Trump won Ohio last year, trouncing Hillary Clinton by eight percentage points.

Among Republicans nationally, 82 percent approved of Trump's job performance, according to a Nov. 12 Gallup poll. Among the general public, 38 percent approved of Trump.

Many in the crowd said they like candidates who run on "outsider" platforms like Trump.

"We've had too many politicians," said Jim Chandler, 82, a Renacci supporter from Bethel."Their major concern is, can I get elected next time?"

Renacci paced up and down the stage, microphone in hand, and expounded upon his personal relationship with Trump. He said he's visited the Oval Office four times, including last week.

"(Trump) doesn't forget people who support him," Renacci said. "So does Vice President Pence...I have the support of the president and vice president, and I will be the one as governor that will be able to work with him."

Neither the president nor vice president have endorsed in the race.

Husted said Trump won Ohio because he appealed to "folks who were working harder and falling behind." He pledged he would work with Trump to fight the heroin epidemic.

"I would work with Donald Trump to help secure the borders," Husted said before being interrupted by applause. "And help make sure this poison that's coming from China and Mexico stops flowing into our country, and that we hold those people accountable and the governments that are helping them get here."

DeWine praised Trump's judicial nominations.

"He said he would put on the bench conservative justices, and he has done that and kept his word," DeWine said. "It matters. It matters a lot."

DeWine also praised Trump's opposition to regulations and former president Obama's immigration policies.

Taylor said she's heartened to have Trump as president because he understands that problems, such as the heroin epidemic, have to be solved at the state level and not through federal mandates.

"States truly are where real problems are solved," Taylor said.

No one invoked Ohio Gov. John Kasich's name - except to distance themselves.

In particular, Taylor made a concerted effort to remind people she's not Kasich, stating her name several times and her bona fides as an accountant.

"I am not John Kasich. View me as an individual," Taylor said. "Judge me on the things I have done. We are different people."

The line brought perhaps the biggest applause Taylor received. She received a more tepid response from the crowd than the other three, with applause interrupting her speech three times, far fewer than the other candidates.

DeWine, in an interview with The Enquirer on Saturday, took a more diplomatic tone on Kasich.

"I'm not in the business of rating people," DeWine said when asked how he feels about Kasich.

Renacci's more conversational style seemed to garner the most frequent applause. His introductory video showed him riding a motorcycle around Ohio. A motorcycle crash at 18 also taught him how to deal with pain management and the opioid crisis, he said. He suggested more aspirin and fewer narcotics to deal with pain.

"I hit a car on a motorcycle at 60 miles an hour, put the bike under the car, went up over the car, went through the windows, ended up 100 yards down the road," Renacci said. "I went to school the next day with aspirin, not opioids."

All four candidates remained in lockstep on key talking points. They all opposed Kasich's Medicaid expansion and favored a requirement for Medicaid recipients to work.

A crowd pleaser for all four candidates was opposition to sanctuary cities, which are cities that limit cooperation with the federal government on enforcement of immigration policies. They all said they would sanction any city that didn't enforce immigration policies. Sanctions could include withholding state funding.

No one in the audience said they heard any missteps from the candidates.

"This is a real Republican county, big-time Republican," Chandler said. "Anyone talking to us knows the buzzwords for us, so even if they don't believe it, they're going to come in and say."

Those buzzwords usually involve limited government, he said.

Saturday's performance by the gubernatorial candidates showed all four candidates are worthy, said Sen. Joseph Uecker, R-Miami Township. Uecker is a Husted supporter because of his working relationship with him in the state legislature.

"I could get behind any one of them in the primary," Uecker said.