Bobby Jindal drops out of USA presidential race

The governor would not endorse either candidate, fellow Republican David Vitter or Democrat John Bel Edwards.

Jindal revealed that he is building a house in Baton Rouge and he plans to return to work at the think tank America Next.

Riding that popularity, Bobby Jindal was chosen to deliver the Republican rebuttal to Obama’s State of the Union address in early 2009.

With Republican voters favouring outsider candidates such as real estate mogul Donald Trump and neurosurgeon Ben Carson over establishment candidates, Jindal never advanced past the “undercard” round at the Republican debates held thus far. He also struggled with his fundraising throughout his campaign.

Colbert rolled a clip from almost three years ago that featured Jindal saying, “It’s no secret we had a number of Republicans that damaged the brand this year with offensive and freakish comments – I’m here to say we’ve had enough of that”. “We can not settle for the left’s view of envy and division”, Jindal said in a statement.

“This must be awful for Jindal’s base, or whatever it is you call 0.3%”, Colbert ribbed in reference to the Governor’s risible poll numbers.

Now, Kondabolu and others are using the hashtag to send up Jindal’s departure from the race.

“He had solutions, not just talking points”, said Scott, who is remaining neutral in the race.

Jindal was asked several times about his choice in the race to replace him in Louisiana.

Saying “this is not my time”, Jindal suggested that the “crazy” election season was behind the tepid interest in his campaign and urged the Republican Party to start taking itself seriously. “You may have some folks who will come to this conference, folks even running for president who might wish for a few things and hope the press doesn’t write about it so they can get back to the issues they really want to talk about”.

Timmy Teepell, Jindal’s campaign manager and longtime political adviser, said the governor was heading home to Louisiana to announce his plan for closing a $490 million budget deficit before traveling the state as he wraps up his tenure in office.