Updated at 5:57 p.m. ET
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Wednesday that he's seeking the Republican presidential nomination, joining an already-crowded GOP field.
"My approach is different from most of the other people running for president," Jindal said in New Orleans hours after announcing his run on Twitter. "The United States of America was made great by people who get things done. Not lots of talk or entertaining speeches.
"To be sure, there are a lot of great talkers running for president already. But none of them, not one, can match our record of actually shrinking the size of government."
Sarah Mccammon of Georgia Public Broadcasting tells our Newscast unit that Jindal faces a major challenge in securing his party's presidential nomination. She says:
"The 44-year-old governor of Louisiana is a former congressman. He was a Rhodes Scholar and became his state's health secretary at just 24. Jindal is seen as both a fiscal and social conservative so he'll have to appeal to some of the same voters that might be inclined to vote for someone like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz or Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker."
Indeed, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is the front-runner in most polls, followed by Walker, who hasn't yet officially announced a run, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Polls show Jindal trailing all GOP presidential hopefuls, but he took aim at Bush in his comments today.
"You've heard Jeb Bush say that we need to be willing to lose the primary in order to win the general election," he said. "Let me translate that for you, I'm going to translate that from political-speak into plain English. He is saying that we need to hide our conservative ideals. But the truth is, if we go down that road again, we will lose again."
For more on Jindal, please visit our It's All Politics blog.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDEwMTk5OTQ0MDEzNDkxMDYyMDQ2MjdiMw004))
