Walker’s score is 7 points more conservative than the average Republican candidate (63). To give you an idea of how big a difference that is, the difference between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was only 2 points (25 vs. 23) during the same period. Walker’s score places him among candidates that most would generally regard as too bombastic or far-right to win the nomination, such as Ted Cruz, 2008 runner-up Mike Huckabee and 2012 runner-up Rick Santorum. Pat Buchanan, the last standing conservative alternative in 1996, scored a 73 in primary polls.1

Walker’s score clearly places him to the right of the Republican Party’s most recent nominees. The last three nominees without an incumbent Republican running were seen as relatively moderate in primary polls. On the same 0 to 100 scale that gave Buchanan a 73, George W. Bush scored an average 63 during the 2000 primary season, John McCain earned a 60 for 2008 and Mitt Romney took a 63 for 2012. (Bush’s score may seem to be at odds with his later record, but keep in mind that he was running as a compassionate reform conservative, just as his brother Jeb is doing now.)

Evidence from past primaries indicates that parties nominate candidates seen as more moderate the longer they have been out of office, because they want to win. Walker would clearly be a step in the opposite direction, and anyone who knows Republican primary voters understands that they would walk over hot coals while listening to a singing album from Eddie Murphy before they would allow Clinton to become president.