5 Things You Should Know About Bobby Jindal 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Rainier Ehrhardt/AP Rainier Ehrhardt/AP 
 
 This story was updated at 12:45 p.m. ET 
 
 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Wednesday he is running for president, becoming the 13th major Republican candidate to enter the race. 
 
 Once seen as a rising star in the GOP, the 44-year-old Indian-American politician now faces long odds in a crowded primary. He's mired at the bottom of most polls, a situation that threatens to keep him off the main debate stage in the first GOP presidential primary debates in August. 
 
 That wasn't always the outlook for the former congressman. Seen as a policy wunderkind, who quickly moved up the ranks from state and federal administrations to lead his state, he was mentioned as a 2012 presidential candidate, but eventually passed on the race. Though his approval ratings in the Bayou State have dropped dramatically amid budget fights, he has still tried to keep a high national profile by hitting the cattle-call circuit to build up his White House chances. 
 
 Jindal's best shot at catching fire in 2016 is to appeal to religious conservatives, especially in the early states of Iowa and South Carolina. But that's a crowded space this time around. Though he's a Roman Catholic, he has said he considers himself an "evangelical Catholic." At last week's Faith and Freedom Coalition gathering in Washington, he got a good reception from the crowd as he shared his personal journey to Christianity, and Iowa GOP observers have also said he's gotten positive marks on the trail there, too. 
 
 Here are five things to know about Bobby Jindal: 
 
 1. Bobby isn't his real name; it's a nickname inspired by The Brady Bunch. 
 
 Jindal was born Piyush Jindal in Baton Rouge in 1971 to parents who had emigrated just months earlier from India. When he was 4 years old, he asked to be called Bobby after one of the brothers on the popular family sitcom. 
 
 Raised Hindu, Jindal converted to Christianity in high school after a friend shared his faith with him. Jindal would read his Bible with a flashlight in his closet, hiding his conversion from his parents. 
 
 "I read the words of Jesus Christ, and I realized that they were true," Jindal said in a 2014 commencement address at Liberty University. "I used to think that I had found God, but I believe it is more accurate to say that He found me." 
 
 2. He's a Rhodes scholar — and had a young start in government and public policy. 
 
 Jindal graduated at just 20 years old from Brown University with degrees in both biology and public policy. He was admitted to both Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School, but he turned down both to attend Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. 
 
 There, he studied health policy and eventually returned to his native state to serve as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals — all at the young age of 24. Four years later, at just 28, he was appointed the youngest-ever president of the University of Louisiana system. 
 
 In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him to be assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, acting as the chief policy adviser to the director of HHS. 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Bill Haber/Associated Press Bill Haber/Associated Press 
 
 3. Jindal lost his first run for elective office, but has won every one since. 
 
 Jindal left his role with HHS in 2003 to run for governor. Louisiana has an open primary system in which all candidates are on the ballot regardless of party. In that first vote, Jindal topped the field, easily besting the second-place finisher, Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco. But in that November's runoff election, Blanco narrowly prevailed, despite the fact that Jindal earned some Democratic support, including an endorsement from then-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Some believed racism was to blame for his close loss. 
 
 Jindal went on to be elected to Congress the following year, though, and was re-elected in 2006. Under fire for her handling of the recovery from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Blanco decided not to run for re-election. Jindal ran again and, this time, he easily beat state Sen. Walter Boasso, who had switched from the GOP just that April to run for governor. In 2011, Jindal won outright without a runoff, winning with more than 65 percent of the vote. 
 
 4. One of Jindal's biggest moments instead drew comparison to Kenneth the page. 
 
 In 2009, the young Louisiana governor was tapped to deliver the GOP response to newly elected President Obama's first address to a joint session of Congress. The plum post was supposed to launch him onto the national stage and buttress a Republican Party badly in need of diversity. 
 
 YouTube 
 
 But Jindal, normally a fast talker, looked halting and timid, as he awkwardly delivered an attempt at a folksy speech. Both Republicans and Democrats panned the address, and many unflatteringly compared him to 30 Rock's bumpkin character, Kenneth the page. 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press 
 
 5. He has the Duck Dynasty seal of approval. 
 
 One TV comparison Jindal is happy to feed is his relationship with the Robertson family, stars of the popular A&E; series Duck Dynasty. The show chronicles the camo-clad, bearded family that runs a booming duck-call business. It is popular among conservatives and those in the Bible Belt; the Robertson family are seen praying each episode and talking openly about their faith. 
 
 But Jindal's connection to the show hasn't been without controversy. The family patriarch, Phil, came under fire for comments he made about people who are gay; Jindal, though, stood behind him and criticized Robertson's suspension from the network. When Jindal began to explore a White House run, the Robertson family had his back as well. 
 
 "I'm the kind of guy who really likes smart people ... and that guy's one of the smartest people I've ever met in my life," son Willie Robertson said on Fox News earlier this year, throwing his support behind Jindal. "He's young, but he's got the values; he's got the intelligence to do it." ||||| poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201511/1634/1155968404_4619938316001_4619926574001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal underwhelmed in the money race, and had just $261,000 in the bank heading into October. 2016 Bobby Jindal drops out of White House race The Louisiana governor had given little sign in recent days that he was close to suspending his campaign. 
 
 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Tuesday he is ending his presidential bid, saying “this is not my time.” 
 
 Jindal had struggled to gain traction as he centered his campaign on Iowa, a state with a large pool of evangelical voters, to whom the governor aggressively sought to appeal. He often failed to poll at even 1 percent in some surveys and underwhelmed in the money race — he had less than $300,000 in the bank heading into October. His low standing in polls meant that he failed to qualify for any of the prime-time Republican debates and was forced to participate in the less-watched undercard debates. 
 
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 He is the third Republican to suspend his campaign, after former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker dropped out earlier this year. Jindal made his announcement during an evening appearance on Fox News. 
 
 "They raised me to believe Americans can do anything, and they were right, we can. But this is not my time, so I am suspending my campaign for President,” Jindal said in a statement announcing his decision. 
 
 "Going forward, I believe we have to be the party of growth and we can never stop being the party that believes in opportunity," he added. "We cannot settle for the left’s view of envy and division. We have to be the party that says everyone in this country — no matter the circumstances of their birth or who their parents are — can succeed in America." 
 
 Jindal, a Brown University-educated Rhodes scholar, was once seen as a rising star in the party. After the 2008 election, in which Republicans took a beating up and down the ballot and lost control of the White House, he gained attention as a potential future GOP leader. 
 
 Yet in the years to come, Jindal, who spent two terms in Congress before being elected governor in 2007, saw his star fade as he was surpassed by other up-and-coming conservative figures, such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. 
 
 At home, as he confronted debilitating budget problems, he saw his poll numbers drop. A University of New Orleans survey released this month found Jindal’s approval rating in Louisiana at just 20 percent. Republicans have grown increasingly concerned that Jindal’s low standing will imperil their hold on the governor’s office; with a runoff election approaching, polls show Republican David Vitter trailing Democrat John Bel Edwards. 
 
 Jindal, though, gave few clues in recent days that he was close to dropping out. Earlier this week, he filed for the New Hampshire primary and announced more stops on his 99-county tour of Iowa. 
 
 He informed his top advisers he would drop out on Monday, after he had "been thinking about it for a few weeks,” said Curt Anderson, a top Jindal strategist. 
 
 In a conference call with reporters, Anderson called the 2016 GOP primary — dominated by Donald Trump and Ben Carson — “bizarre” more than once. "I don't know that any of us can explain it,” he said of the dynamics. 
 
 Jindal had bet heavily on Iowa, but his campaign complained loudly and often about the use of national polling to determine who appeared on stage. 
 
 "It never occurred to us,” Jindal campaign manager Timmy Teepell said on the phone call, "he could be excluded.” 
 
 Jindal ended September with just $261,000 in his campaign account — among the least cash of any candidate in the field. “Fundraising is certainly a part of it,” Anderson said of Jindal’s final decision. 
 
 Iowa activists noticed Jindal's frequent visits to the state, and he was often mentioned as a candidate who appealed to evangelical voters, including by Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent social conservative in the state who will be holding a cattle call this weekend and endorsing soon after. Last month he told POLITICO he saw Jindal generating buzz. 
 
 The Louisiana governor’s exit could benefit Cruz, who is seeking to consolidate evangelical, tea party and libertarian support in Iowa and is also competing for Vander Plaats’ endorsement. 
 
 “We will be aggressively looking at the people who were supporting the governor,” said a Cruz adviser, saying the campaign is looking to draw support from all of its competitors, including those who have dropped out. 
 
 “I do know the governor had a lot of people supporting him who were evangelicals,” said the adviser. “To the extent [those supporters] look at Sen. Cruz and see they share the same values, we welcome the opportunity to win them over.” 
 
 In last week’s Republican debate in Milwaukee, Jindal tried to show signs of life by repeatedly attacking a fellow governor, Chris Christie of New Jersey, as a big-government liberal. "Chris, look, I'll give you your ribbon for participation, and a juicebox, but in the real world, it's about results,” Jindal said. "It's about actually cutting government spending, not just talking about cutting government spending." 
 
 In announcing his departure from the race, Jindal said that when his term ends he would go back to work at his think tank, America Next. 
 
 But both Anderson and Teepell hinted at more campaigns to come, noting the fact that, at 44, Jindal was the youngest candidate in the field. 
 
 "He has a bright future,” Teepell said. 
 
 Shane Goldmacher and Katie Glueck contributed to this report. ||||| Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal talks about a potential bid for the White House in 2016. Jindal highlighted his accomplishments during the South Carolina Freedom Summit. VPC 
 
 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal waves at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City on May 22, 2015. (Photo: Alonzo Adams, AP) 
 
 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will make a "major announcement" regarding his presidential plans on June 24, according to media reports. 
 
 Jindal adviser Timmy Teepell says the governor will announce if he intends to join the crowded Republican field at an event in New Orleans, Politico reports. 
 
 An announcement of Jindal's intention to seek the Republican nomination has been expected since he launched a presidential exploratory committee in May and began paying visits to key primary states. He said previously that he would address his plans sometime after the end of Louisiana's legislative session on June 11. 
 
 Jindal's exploratory committee website —complete with a red, white and blue logo in the shape of a "J" — leaves little doubt he intends to run. "We must fight to make sure the next generation is not the first generation to inherit fewer opportunities than their parents. Will you join me?" the site asks. 
 
 Jindal is a two-term governor and former congressman, but his popularity ratings in Louisiana have been low, in part because the state's budget surplus has turned into a $1.6 billion deficit. 
 
 Jindal, a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act and Common Core, favors a smaller federal government. 
 
 "The reality is if we don't reduce the size of government, it is going to swallow our economy and turn the American dream into a European nightmare of government dependence," Jiindal said at the South Carolina Freedom Summit. 
 
 Jindal is known as a "policy guy,'' according to his spokeswoman Shannon Bates Dirmann, but he has been working to court Christian conservatives. 
 
 In April, Jindal wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times, in which he said he is "holding firm against gay marriage" and declared his support for religious freedom laws, such as the one in Indiana that sparked outrage among same-sex marriage supporters. 
 
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– There's always room for one more: "My name is Bobby Jindal, and I am running for President of the United States of America." So declared the Louisiana governor today. The 44-year-old Indian-American is low in most polls, however, and faces steep odds. One typical example of coverage: FiveThirtyEight calls him a strong candidate—if this were 2012. NPR, meanwhile, rounds up some odds and ends about him, including: Given name: He was born Piyush Jindal in Louisiana, but asked to be called Bobby at age 4—after Bobby Brady of the Brady Bunch. Rhodes scholar: He turned down Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School to attend Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and study health policy. He then ran his home state's health department at age 24. Bad impression: He was a given a huge opportunity to make his name by delivering the GOP response to President Obama's first congressional address in 2009. Instead, he drew comparisons to Kenneth on 30 Rock. Jindal will have a formal address later tonight, notes the Washington Post, which calls his chances "extraordinarily low" among the 12 other major GOP candidates (so far). His entry is no surprise, it adds: "In the months leading up to his launch, Jindal tried to stand out from his GOP rivals by playing up his Catholic faith, being unusually hawkish on defense issues, and being unusually tough on fellow Republicans in Washington."