Four Republican candidates vying to face incumbent Congressman John Barrow in the 12th Congressional District race met onstage Thursday night to stake their claim to their party’s nomination. GOP candidates Rick Allen, Lee Anderson, Wright McLeod and Maria Sheffield gathered in a filled Joe Kennedy Auditorium at Ogeechee Technical College as part of a political forum hosted by Georgia Eagle Media and the Bulloch County Republican Party. Each of the political hopefuls fielded a selection of audience-submitted questions and reaffirmed campaign goals of supplanting the democratic congressman, limiting government spending, slashing the federal budget and taking fundamental Christian values to Washington, D.C. As part of the 90-minute program, candidates offered their positions on issues including the national debt, gay marriage, dependence on foreign oil and the regional transportation tax commonly known as TSPLOST. The debate was perhaps the last for the Republican nominees, who will appear on ballots for the July 31 primary.