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US Senator Rand Paul had to change his position and justify the US use of drones in light of upcoming Republican presidential primaries, experts told Sputnik.

On April 26, 2015, Paul defended President Barack Obama’s drone strike on an al-Qaeda compound that accidentally killed two US citizens. Paul had previously said he opposed the use of drones on people not involved in combat.

“Paul has had to adjust his positions on a variety of issues recently because of the realities of running in a Republican primary,” University of Northern Iowa Political Science Assistant Professor Justin Holmes said on Tuesday.

“His positions on foreign policy in particular are at odds with traditional positions of the Republican party, which tends to be relatively hawkish,” he added.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Political Science Professor Barry Burden told Sputnik on Tuesday that Paul is facing a field of conservative opponents for the Republican nomination.

“Standing up for US military intervention helps mute their criticism of his isolationist tendencies,” Burden said.

Holmes explained Paul’s change of posture by the need to appeal to a broader audience.

“[Paul’s] challenge, electorally, is that he does not have enough of his traditional supporters to actually win the nomination,” he added.

Holmes argued that changes in position might incur political costs, such as alienating supporters who are at odds with the Republican Party on foreign policy.

Moreover, there is a risk that these position changes will not help attract new votes, because they may seem insincere.

“For a typical Republican primary voter, it is unlikely that they would switch their support from Bush, Cruz, Rubio to Paul, just because of this new position,” Holmes said.

On April 23, 2015, the White House announced that a US government counterterrorism operation against al-Qaeda in January 2015 accidentally killed US citizen Warren Weinstein, who had been held hostage by al-Qaeda since 2011, and Italian national Giovanni Lo Porto who had been held hostage since 2012. Ahmed Farouq, a US citizen and al-Qaeda leader, was also killed in the drone strike.