Would you take a bullet for President Donald Trump?

"You mean metaphorically or literally?" Alabama Senate candidate Bradley Byrne answered.

It's a measure, an indication of the devotion for a president who has demanded and received unwavering support from his Republican Party.

In ads, on the stump, on social media, each of the leading GOP candidates for Senate in Alabama have taken turns professing their devotion to the president and his agenda.

No matter how Trumpy you are, one candidate might say to the other, I'm even Trumpier.

But would you take a bullet for him?

“I don’t know what that means, but I was the first one to endorse him at a time that that created a great deal of hostility,” Senate candidate Jeff Sessions answered. “People were shocked in Washington and even some in Alabama. I placed my full support behind him.”

It's literal. It's metaphor. It means whatever you think it means. Would you take a bullet for President Trump?

"You're talking about, who do you owe your loyalty to?" asked Senate candidate Roy Moore. "Your loyalty is owed to the Constitution of the United States. It's not to a man. It's to principle. That's what you answer to. And that's what I think we should all do is uphold principles. It's not about principle anymore. It's about power."

No Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump. Only one Republican in the U.S. Senate trial voted not to acquit Trump. And two days after that acquittal, he held a mini-rally in the East Room of the White House to a hand-picked audience of supporters made up largely of those Republicans on Capitol Hill who seemingly laud his every decision, word and tweet.

But how high does the bar go? High enough to take a bullet for him? That’s a question AL.com posed to five Senate candidates at campaign events in north Alabama last weekend. Tommy Tuberville, a Senate candidate so staunch of a Trump supporter that he has the president’s name on his campaign bus, was scheduled to attend a forum last weekend in Huntsville but had a last-minute change of plans.

"I'd take a bullet for my brother in any case," Senate candidate Arnold Mooney said. "That's what we're called to do as believers is to lay down our lives for our friends. Whether it was President Trump or some radical leftist socialist, if somebody is taking a shot at them, we need to try to protect them. There's no question, my faith teaches me that and it's a conviction I have in life."

“Oh, no. I don’t think I need to take a bullet for President Trump,” Senate candidate Stanley Adair, a businessman from Haleyville, said with a laugh. “I think his security guys can do that.”

For Sessions and Byrne – two of the top three candidates in the race, according to polls -- they point to the bullets they've already taken for Trump.

Sessions touted being the first senator to endorse Trump, to be a campaign surrogate for the unconventional campaign that led to the election of an unconventional president.

"I can't tell you how gratified I've been that he honored what he said he would do," Sessions said. "Because so many people told me they didn't believe he would. And I said I thought he would. I know we had difficulties over one issue but I believe what he's doing is good for America. I will defend him. I have defended him and I will continue to defend him."

The “difficulties over one issue” is a sort of another bullet Sessions took – the derisive comments from Trump after Sessions recused himself from the Russia election tampering investigation. It eventually led to Sessions, appointed U.S. attorney general by Trump, being forced from office. Nevertheless, Sessions remained steadfast in his support and resisted returning Trump’s fire.

Byrne touted being among a group of Republicans in the House who entered uninvited a secure Capitol room where private testimony was being given as part of the Democrats' investigation that led to the articles of impeachment.

Byrne “was yelling” at Adam Schiff – who eventually became the Democrats’ lead impeachment manager -- as part of about two dozen GOP members of Congress who entered the secure room to protest the process by which the Democratic-controlled House was proceeding with the impeachment inquiry, CNN reported at the time.

"I stood up pretty hard for President Trump," Byrne said. "We went into that room, (Rep.) Mo Brooks was with me, and confronted Adam Schiff and we took some hard positions on the floor. I think (Trump) was being mistreated in this process horribly and he needed people like me to stand up with him and a number of us did and a number of us were invited to the White House the other day and he thanked us for it."

Indeed, Byrne got a shout-out from Trump during the post-acquittal event in the East Room.

Still, the question lingers. Would, or could, Republicans take a stand against Trump if he went a step too far? In the context of support from Washington Republicans and Alabama Senate candidates and Trump’s norm-shattering presidency, the possibility seems difficult to grasp.

"There's so much more right about him than wrong about him," Mooney said. "It would be no problem taking a bullet."

But while Trump's unconventional presidency may subject him to what Republicans see as unwarranted criticism, Trump's unconventional presidency makes him a favorite as well.

"We elected a strong president and we wanted to change things in Washington and somebody who would fight and wouldn't back down and wouldn't let the politically correct crowd dominate," Sessions said. "So that creates hostility when he takes them on eyeball to eyeball, which he's done. He doesn't back down.

"So some people have tried to make everything that he does wrong. It's just a disagreement. They don’t like what he's doing. I think the Republicans are correct to defend him because his basic agenda is to defend us on trade issues, end illegal immigration, to be cautious on foreign policy, cut taxes, cut regulations, (appoint) judges and defend religious faith. I think he deserves a vigorous defense. He's doing what I want him to do."

That sentiment was echoed by Sessions' opponents in the GOP Senate race.

"President Trump has his own style," Byrne said. "It's a style that works for him. It's not necessarily my style. So the way I look at it is, look, he's got his style and I've got my style. As a member of Congress, my job is to judge on the substantive policy prescriptions he puts forward, particularly bills.

"And so, 97 percent of the time (in votes), I agree with him. I think I'm up to 98 percent of the time. And that's because I read these bills and study these bills, I work with people in his administration and on the substance, I think they are correct."

Said Adair, "I think they could stop him if he went too far. But I think he's doing wonderful. I made the statement that I think Trump should go down as one of the greatest presidents ever. I believe that business mindset he has, he's getting things done … I think he's pretty much got this country headed in the right direction."

Said Mooney, "He's supported every issue he's run on. He's a guy that I can say I can do business with him because he does what he says he's going to do."

If a candidate has not booked a first-class seat on the Trump train, it's Moore. That's not to say he's not on the train, too, because the 2017 GOP nominee in the Senate special election has made it clear he supports the president as well.

But Moore said his unyielding devotion is to the Constitution rather than Trump – or any president.

“If he’s right, he’s right,” Moore said. “And if the whole world opposed him and he was right, I would defend him. If he’s wrong, I’m not going to defend him.”