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. In that first vote, Jindal topped the field, easily besting the second-place finisher, Democratic Lt. Gov.  Imagine, if you will, that a young Republican governor of a Southern state is thinking about running for president. No one has ever won a major party nomination when polling below 25 percent with voters in their own state at this point in the campaign. Jindal left his role with HHS in 2003 to run for governor. Bobby Jindal announced Wednesday he is running for president, becoming the 13th major Republican candidate to enter the race. By June 2014, he had fallen to 12 percent and fourth place in Louisiana. According to what we understand about the criteria for the first televised GOP debate (sponsored by Fox News), Jindal wouldn’t make the cut. Jindal plans to officially enter the Republican primary today, but this year, he hasn’t polled higher than 2 percent nationally, 2 percent in any Iowa caucus survey or 3 percent in any New Hampshire primary poll. “So in other words we shouldn’t tolerate those who want to come and try to impose some variant of, some version of sharia law,” Jindal told a conservative think tank in March, according to the Guardian newspaper. (Facebook/Bobby Jindal) 
 
 Just eight years ago, Jindal's future looked far brighter than it does now. To address doubts among national conservatives, Jindal repeatedly embraced harder-line conservative positions -- both in terms of Louisiana's budget and in terms of social issues. 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. Both Republicans and Democrats panned the address, and many unflatteringly compared him to 30 Rock's bumpkin character, Kenneth the page. Here are five things to know about Bobby Jindal: 
 
 1. In preparation for this run, Jindal's supporters launched a super PAC called "Believe Again." Jindal also would have been the only serious candidate younger than 50 in 2012, but he’s joined by Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Walker in 2016.
– 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."