From 538: How Conservative are GOP Presidential Candidates?

The story featured in the previous link has this great graphic which deserves to be poured over. It contains estimates of the ideological positioning of the current candidates - announced and speculated - for the 2016 run along with actual nominees dating back to Barry Goldwater.




There are a few things worth noting in this graph. Here are a couple quick observations.

- The most liberal and most conservative candidates listed are currently running, likely due to the fact that not all candidates dating back to 1964 are listed.

- The graph supports the claim that congressional Republican have become more conservative in recent years.