There’s A Reason Santorum Endorsed Rubio

Rick Santorum was running out of steam. After a poor performance in the Iowa caucuses, a contest he won in 2012, the ultra-conservative candidate withdrew from the race for the GOP nomination. In the seven Republican debates we’ve seen this cycle, Santorum never earned a spot on the main stage, nor the central podium on the undercard round. It is no surprise then that Santorum, perhaps known best for his far-right positions on social issues, would exit the race sooner rather than later.

But what he did next was a big deal.

There are, as I write, nine Republicans seeking their party’s nomination for the general election. Among these are the acrimonious Chris Christie, prickly Carly Fiorina, and purportedly antiestablishmentarian United States Senator Ted Cruz, all of who assert their right-wing values whenever possible. On the debate stage, social media, and the stump, the aforementioned candidates tout their positions as more truly conservative than the others.

While the former two may not have much of a chance at the nomination, Ted Cruz does. His poll numbers are consistently high, and he won Iowa by a large margin. (While Iowa in the past two cycles hasn’t been a great bellwether, it has frequently in the past and is especially significant this time around with so many candidates present.) And Ted Cruz, Tea Party darling, is surely a more firebrand-conservative option than by-the-book Rubio, right? He’s given the Republican response to the State of the Union. He (unlike Cruz) is respected by his Senate colleagues, and he’s shaping up to be the establishment candidate for the party. (Sorry, Jeb.)

Rick Santorum had a proverbial buffet of candidates to choose from. Why, then, would such a conservative as he endorse Rubio over all the others? It can’t be a purely pragmatic choice—if Mr. Santorum were a pragmatist, he would not have run for President, at least for this long.

The answer is simple, but startling. Marco Rubio is as conservative as anyone else running for President. In fact, I would argue he is the singular most conservative candidate still in the race. As President, he would not support a path to citizenship for undocumented individuals. He denied supporting abortion in the case of rape or incest, and has sponsored bills to make abortion services in all cases more difficult to acquire. He labels the legalization of gay marriage a “real and present danger” to Christianity, supports voter ID laws, and tweets opposition to the Iran deal, instead supporting greater sanctions.

Rubio is a shrewd politician. He, like many seeking the GOP nomination, has moved to the right in recent months to appeal to the base. But that cannot be interpreted as a mere strategy for Rubio, just as it could not for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney or Hillary Clinton. If a candidate takes a position, that is his position, regardless of the possible strategic motives behind it.

Make no mistake about it: Marco Rubio is a hard-line right-winger, and is, if not the most conservative candidate, certainly the most popular (and viable) one. But don’t take my word for it—take Rick Santorum’s.

I’ll give Mr. Santorum, an evident fan of the royal “we,” the last word. Speaking on Fox News: “We decided that we wanted to find a candidate that really espoused the values that we believed in.”