Ted Cruz in Forbes Magazine 2016 Candidates

On Education: Right to education: public, private, charter, or homeschool

At Liberty University in March 2015, Cruz said, "Imagine embracing school choice as the civil rights issue of the next generation. That every single child, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of wealth or zip code, every child in America has a right to a quality education. And that's true from all of the above, whether it is public schools or charter schools or private schools or Christian schools or parochial schools or home schooled. Every child."

On Education: We should thank parents who homeschool

In 2015, Cruz said, "Imagine that every single child in America has a right to a quality education, whether it is public schools or charter schools or private schools or Christian schools or parochial schools or home schooled. Every child."

On Drugs: 2014: federal enforcement; 2015: let states experiment

Those remarks contradict Cruz's previous position, when he criticized the Obama administration for failing to aggressively enforce the federal ban on marijuana in states that have legalized the drug. In January 2014, he described the Justice Department's prosecutorial restraint, which is designed to respect state policy choices, as an abuse of executive power.

Cruz's apparent turnaround reflects a political reality: Cruz's calibration is the easiest way to strike the balance between younger, more tolerant GOP voters and social conservatives.