Washington Post: GOP Candidates Rushing to the Right

From Sean Sullivan writing at the Washington Post:

In the span of a few days this week, Scott Walker emphasized that he opposes abortions, with no exceptions in cases of rape or incest or to save the woman’s life. Marco Rubio shot down a suggestion that he advocated exceptions for rape or incest.

On immigration, Rubio said he backed a fence to keep illegal immigrants out of the country, echoing front-runner Donald Trump’s call for a new border wall. And on same-sex marriage, Rick Santorum compared the legalization of such unions to the infamous Supreme Court ruling that African Americans could not be U.S. citizens.

Some of the statements reflected shifts in priorities or positions over the long term; Rubio, for example, has abandoned Senate legislation he helped craft that would give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. Others reflected candidates’ decisions to emphasize conservative positions more than they had before.

Either way, in the most wide-open Republican presidential field in memory, most of the contenders continued a rush to the right this week in the hope of capturing the attention of the GOP base. The strategy is clearly aimed at primary contests in states such as Iowa and South Carolina, which are dominated by large blocs of evangelicals and other conservative voters.

Read the rest of the story at the Washington Post.