B obby Jindal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on June 10, 1971. Jindal is now a Catholic, but was brought up as a Hindu. Jindal earned a BS at Brown University in 1991 and graduated with honors in biology and public policy. Jindal then went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He graduated from Oxford in 1994 .
On October 18, 1997, Jindal married his wife, Supriya. The couple have three children; Slade Ryan who is a 1-year-old, Shaan Robert, who is 3-years-old, and Selia Elizabeth, who is 6-years-old.
Before going into politics, Jindal worked for McKinsey and Company in 1994 as a consultant for several Fortune 500 companies.
Health Policy
In 1996, Jindal was appointed Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.
While in service, Jindal achieved the following:
- Revived the state’s Medicaid program by saving it from bankruptcy
- Helped increase the amount of childhood immunizations
- Helped the state rank third best nationally in health care screening for children
- Created new, expanded services for disabled and elderly people
In 1998, Jindal was made Executive Director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare.
In 2001, Jindal was appointed as Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by President George W. Bush. He served as the principal policy advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Election Success
In 2003, Jindal resigned from the HHS Department and returned to Louisiana to run for office. Shortly after, in 2004, Jindal was elected to the 109th United States Congress to represent the First District of Louisiana. He was easily re-elected to Congress with an 88 percent majority in 2006.
On October, 20, 2007, Jindal won 54 percent of the primary vote and was elected Governor of Louisiana. When Jindal was elected, he helped create comprehensive ethics reform, which was the “cornerstone of his election platform”. The bills included disclosure laws and expense account limits.
“Hurricanes Katrina and Rita presented Jindal with a unique moment in his state’s history to enact reforms; as he put it, the storms ’caused people to rethink how they wanted their social institutions to be designed, how they wanted services to be delivered, what kind of state they wanted to call home.”
- gov.louisiana.gov
The reform was so successful that the Better Government Association and the Center For Public Integrity said the ethics laws were some of the best in the United States.
2016 Election Potential
Some Republicans think Jindal is the face of change for the Republican party. According to topics.nytimes.com, Jindal “is a part of a younger generation of reform-minded Republicans that has been accumulating power in the state.”
However, when Jindal gave the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s 26th address to Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike were not impressed with his speech.
Jindal will have to convince people in his political party that he’s ready for the presidency. While he has a lot of political experience, he’s young. Running in 2012, despite facing President Obama, may give him the exposure and campaign experience necessary to succeed in 2016.
Sources:
http://www.gov.louisiana.gov
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/j000287/
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=j000287
http://www.esquire.com/features/bobby-jindal-all-american-1008
http://www.bobbyjindal.com/
http://www.gov.state.la.us/
http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=1768
Other potential Republican candidates:
Chris Christie-tough-talking governor of New Jersey
Marco Rubio-fiscal conservative, tea party favorite
Scott Walker-popular with conservatives for strong stance against public unions
Nikki Haley-Indian-American governor of a Southern state
Paul Ryan-fiscal hawk, de facto leader of the Republican Party in Congress; the anti-Obama
Rand Paul-Son of the notoriously independent Congressman, tea party favorite
Bobby Jindal vs. Rahm Emanuel whoever would be the winner america breaks another milestone in the diversity of office i mean jindal is a conservative and republicna while im liberal and a democrat i feel that his way of handling things in louisianna is amazing and Rahm was great member of obamas team and surely a good mayor nut who knows maybe fat christie and sherrod brown might run who knows but til 2016 obama ’12
Jindal didn’t do himself any favors by aligning himself so closely to Rick Perry during the 2012 primary season. IMO, that sets him back for the 2016 nomination.