Watch video of Jindal and his wife Supriya breaking the news to their children.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, has officially become the first Indian American in the history of the United States to run for president.
Jindal announced his presidential campaign Wednesday with an unusually personal touch: a hidden video in which he and his wife tell their kids about the campaign, reported Time.
In the nearly two-minute video filmed from a camera in a nearby tree and posted on Facebook, the Jindals tells their three kids that they aren’t allowed to tell their soccer and baseball teammates about the secret they’re letting them in on.
“Mommy and Daddy have been thinking and talking a lot about this and we have decided we are going to be running for president this year,” he says.
The family then discusses whether the kids will be allowed to go back to Iowa (only if they behave), whether they were surprised and how much they enjoyed eating popcorn and candy bars at the Iowa state fair, the Time report said. (Points for the Jindal kids for staying on message about Iowa.)
NBC reported Jindal tweeted on Wednesday that he’s jumping in to the GOP nomination race, also sending out a link to a new campaign website. He is slated to hold an official announcement event Wednesday afternoon in New Orleans.
Jindal tweeted:
“I’m running for President of the United States of America. Join me: http://t.co/MmqB4kxpUq
— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) June 24, 2015”
Jindal, 44, was first elected governor of Louisiana in 2007. The conservative Indian American lawmaker is considered a longshot for the GOP nomination. In the latest NBC/WSJ poll, he received less than one percent support from Republican primary voters.
Once viewed as a rising star in the Republican party, he has recently struggled with low approval ratings in his home state amid budget problems, noted NBC.
But Jindal backers argue that he has an impressive resume that will appeal to many key parts of the GOP primary electorate. He has been an outspoken advocate for Christian values and boasts of deep cuts to spending in his home state.
CNN reported that Jindal will have an uphill task to become the GP nominee for president.
If he wants to compete in the expansive Republican field, he’ll have to resurrect a reputation that has fallen significantly in recent years. Jindal is now polling toward the bottom of the field, registering at just 1% in the latest CNN/ORC poll.
Jindal’s popularity in his own state has suffered — a recent poll has his approval at 32% — thanks to budget troubles and perhaps a preoccupation with playing to a national audience. His refusal to raise taxes to help balance the state’s books has resulted in deep cuts to popular programs and areas of government spending such as health care and education, said CNN.
His wife, Supriya Jindal, will introduce him on stage tonight — the only speaker before he takes the podium. There will be a couple of videos, and they expect about 500 people at the convention center in Kenner, Louisiana for the event, reported Time.
Jindal is likely best-known nationally for his flip-flop on Common Core educational standards — from support to opposition, a move many saw as opportunistic as he marches toward a presidential bid.
In 2010, his state implemented the standards. By 2014, he was blasting them. In the interim, many conservatives fearful of government takeover of schools had begun to protest the standards across the country, pushing Republican politicians to rethink their support, reported CNN. Jindal’s reversal marked a watershed moment for the politician, who following Romney’s 2012 loss, pushed for the GOP to represent something other than being the “party of no.”
The Brown University graduate and Rhodes scholar went even further, chastising his peers for verbal gaffes and unforced errors when politicking leading up to the presidential election.
“It’s not going to be the last time anyone says something stupid within our party, but it can’t be tolerated within our party,” he said. “We’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters.”
Though initial polling shows Jindal is a longshot, he has carved out a niche of vibrant support among evangelical Christians and the anti-Common Core activists. He’s also positioned himself as a top opponent of “political correctness” and has at times led his party’s charge in railing against radical Islam, while also straying into the controversial territory, reported CNN.
Jindal’s four main objectives as president would be securing the border, replacing Obamacare, growing the private sector and increasing defense, they said. He will be “aggressive” on calling for the destruction of radical Islam and that containment is a strategy for losers.
Mother Jones reported that the Louisiana governor rose through the ranks of the Republican party on the strength of his reputation as a Rhodes Scholar whiz kid, a former Brown pre-med with an eye for the intricacies of health policy. But since taking office, he has been dogged by accusations that he’s playing politics with science education. In 2008, Jindal supported a law that makes it easier for biology teachers to “teach the controversy” on the theory of evolution. His stance on the issue has earned him unfavorable attention outside the state. In 2012, when he was briefly floated as a potential vice presidential candidate, Slate dubbed it “Bobby Jindal’s science problem.”
Jones reported that the image of Jindal as an anti-science hypocrite is largely the product of one man—Zack Kopplin, a 21-year-old history major at Rice University. Kopplin has spent much of the last five years campaigning against Jindal’s approach to the teaching of evolution, which Kopplin considers a backdoor invitation to teach creationism. He has testified before the state legislature.
Timmy Teepell, who will be campaign manager for Jindal, said the Republican Party should want to have Jindal on stage because of his youth and record, reported CNN. “I can’t imagine the party wouldn’t want that, especially when you consider other candidates who could be on stage.”
In 1996, at the age of just 24, Jindal was appointed as head of Louisiana’s department of health policies. Later, he served under President George W. Bush in the Department of Health and Human Services as a top adviser to then-HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson. Raised in a Hindu household, Jindal converted to Catholicism in high school.
He first cut his own political teeth in 2003, surprising many to force a run-off election in the Louisiana gubernatorial race. Though he lost, he set himself up for a successful congressional run in 2004, serving until finally winning the governor’s mansion in 2008.
Jindal’s first stop after his speech Wednesday night will be New Hampshire on Thursday, followed by Iowa on Friday. He holds a fundraising event in Baton Rouge on Saturday — the only fundraising event that will appear on their financial reports for the period that ends on June 30, reported CNN.
I had to tell a few people first. But I want you to be next. I’m running for President of the United States of America. Join me: http://www.bobbyjindal.com/announcement/
Posted by Bobby Jindal on Wednesday, June 24, 2015
1 Comment
Any adult over a certain age born in America is eligible. Bobby Jindal is eligible but does he have a chance. Answer is No. This man might be wiz kid or spelling bee winner but no one in the right mind would invest his or her hard earned money on this loser whose credentials are hyped up beyond reason. This juvenile looking Governor is no Obama. Come January, he has to find a good paying job like a chartered accountant where he can use his Rhode credentials to full use.